It was a day packed with official events for Mayor Sheila Dixon: approving millions of dollars in contracts at a Board of Estimates meeting, holding a news conference to urge parents to vaccinate their children against swine flu, pushing health care reform at a town hall meeting, surprising a Baltimore school with a visit, even playing bingo at a senior center that she had fought to keep open.

Throughout the day, she assumed multiple roles, from chief executive to mayor-as-mother to champion of communities. But starting Monday, Dixon, who made history as the city's first female mayor, will take on another title: criminal defendant.

The photo-ops and the meetings held in her offices at City Hall will be replaced by days of sitting in a government building across the street, a courtroom on the second floor of Courthouse East. Her coterie of aides will be replaced by some of the state's toughest defense lawyers.

And instead of talking, she'll spend most of her days listening as State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh tries to convince 12 city residents in the jury box that Dixon stole gift cards from needy Baltimore families. She'll hear him say that she knowingly used those cards to buy clothes and electronics for her family and friends.