By MELODY SIMMONS
What’s the legal definition of misappropriation? Does “intent to deprive” or “misappropriate” involve immediacy, or a time period? Can we go home?

Those were the only smoke signals emerging from hours of deliberations by the 12-person jury Thursday afternoon in Mayor Sheila Dixon’s felony theft trial at Baltimore’s Mitchell Courthouse East.

Four hours into their debate – following more than three hours of instructions and closing arguments — jurors were dismissed at 4:30 p.m. and told by Circuit Court Judge Dennis M. Sweeney to return at 9 a.m. Friday to continue.

Earlier in the day, a group of the mayor’s supporters packed the courtroom for closing arguments, and applauded in open court when defense attorney Arnold Weiner uttered his final statement: “Return a verdict of ‘not guilty’ and end this nightmare to put the finishing point on a three-and-a-half year relentless pursuit” of Dixon.

Minutes later, prosecutor Robert Rohrbaugh shot down the euphoria by reminding jurors that “this is a serious case,” centered on the theft of gift cards donated to the city by wealthy, tax break-endowed developers intended for underprivileged children and families at Christmastime beginning in 2005.

Rohrbaugh ended his statement with a punch: “This case is about the citizens of Baltimore, the children of Baltimore. If you steal from the children of Baltimore, that’s unspeakable.” His very last words were: “the fact remains, she stole them.”

The prosecutor’s main closing was given by Shelly S. Glenn, who marched jurors chronologically through a 2005 and 2006 gift card request by Dixon, then president of the City Council, to Patrick Turner, a millionaire developer with close ties to City Hall. Days after Turner dropped $1,000 in gift cards to Dixon’s office for holiday distribution in city communities, Dixon spent a bulk of cards from Best Buy on a video camera, camera bag, video tapes and video games and DVDs. The total was $475.

Glenn then focused on the Holly Trolley tour of communities, a holiday event in which Dixon handed out hundreds of Toys R Us gift cards. Leftover cards were found in Dixon’s west Baltimore home when prosecutors raided the residence early in the morning of June 16, 2008.

“I guess for the next time she wants to give a present to someone,” Glenn said, sarcastically.

As for Dixon’s defense that she mixed up gift cards from Turner with gifts from ex-boyfriend Ronald Lipscomb, Glenn pointed across the courtroom and boomed: “This woman did not get this far in life that she gets that confused.”

Weiner stood next, refuting Glenn and calling the state’s case ultra-thin: “This case is a whole lot of conjecture, a whole lot of made-up conversations filled in with this prosecutor’s office’s imagination.”

Weiner said Dixon has had to “endure since Spring 2003 one of the most searing, intrusive investigations a human being has had to go through” and slammed investigators for combing through the mayor’s home for seven hours “rummaging through every room, every pocket book, every drawer in her bedroom. To come up with what?”

He was withering on the subject of the state’s star witness, Lipscomb, whose testimony never materialized after Rohrbaugh refused to call him to the stand, despite cutting a favorable plea deal. This, Weiner noted, led to Judge Sweeney’s tossing of two of the seven counts against Dixon and nearly 40 pieces of evidence. It also meant that the judge had to order jurors to disregard testimony from six witnesses and partial testimony from four others, adding further complication to the already challenging proceedings.

“What’s on you now is the job of having to remember what you’re supposed to forget,” Weiner railed to jurors, as courtroom spectators roared with laughter.

Jurors looked on, some with amused expressions, others serious stares. They are now sorting through all of the drama.