The guilty plea by a city housing department official in the theft of Toys R Us gift cards fills in one question from the indictment of Mayor Sheila Dixon: Lindbergh Carpenter Jr. appears to be Employee # 5. According to the indictment of the mayor, he bought the batch of gift cards that included one Dixon allegedly gave to another city employee and five that prosecutors found in her house when they searched it over the summer. According to the state prosecutor's office, Carpenter agreed to cooperate fully in all on-going investigations as part of his plea deal. It doesn't specifically mention Dixon's case, but it certainly raises the possibility that he might be providing evidence related to her alleged use of the cards.

Much of the discussion in the case so far has focused on the prosecutor's charges of perjury in the case, stemming from Dixon's lack of disclosure of gifts she allegedly received from a prominent developer. But that has bogged down in a legal discussion of whether she was, for technical reasons, actually required to report those gifts. But with the gift cards, the question is not the law, it's the facts. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Mr. Carpenter can do to clarify them.