Thomas M. ‘Mike’ McDonough, whose office prosecuted Sheila Dixon and Linda Tripp among others, dies

Thomas M. “Mike” McDonough, a former deputy state prosecutor whose career included handling multiple high-profile political corruption cases, died of multiple myeloma April 24 at the Gilchrist Center in Towson. The Perry Hall resident was 71.

“Mike was a very smart prosecutor who was extremely thoughtful and invaluable to me when making decisions,” former State Prosecutor Emmet C. Davitt said. “He had institutional knowledge and knew what worked and what didn’t. He saw the big picture and gave me and my predecessors wise counsel and was always there to serve the citizens of Maryland.”

Thomas Michael McDonough, son of Thomas Joseph McDonough, a General Motors worker, and Marion Louise Scheidt McDonough, a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Parkville.

While at Parkville High School, he met Donna Sprucebank, a fellow senior, and the two flirted with each other while both were working at the Shop & Save grocery store where she was a cashier and he worked in the deli.

The two fell in love and married in 1973.

A lacrosse player, he graduated in 1971 from Parkville and attended what is now McDaniel College in Westminster, and Drexel University in Philadelphia, before graduating in 1975 from what is now Towson University with a bachelor’s degree in English.

Unable to find a job as a newspaper reporter, Mr. McDonough joined his father at the General Motors plant on Broening Highway on the assembly line.

Five years on the line proved to be pivotal.

“I knew I didn’t want to do that all my life,” he told The Baltimore Sun in 2018.

With a wife and two children, Mr. McDonough worked days at the old GM plant in Dundalk while attending law school in the evenings at the University of Baltimore. He obtained his law degree in 1981.

Mr. McDonough landed a job as a law clerk in the Baltimore County state’s attorney office and was an assistant state’s attorney for three years before joining the State Prosecutor’s Office in 1984.

One of his first high-profile convictions came in 1994 when former Baltimore Comptroller Jacqueline F. McLean pleaded guilty to “official misconduct for, among other things, steering a city lease to a building she co-owned,” The Sun reported.

There were also “some high-profile failures,” according to the newspaper, including when former state Sen. Larry Young was acquitted of bribery and tax evasion charges.

Mr. McDonough’s office also had to drop a case against Linda Tripp, who was accused of wiretapping Clinton-era White House intern Monica Lewinsky, when “key evidence was ruled inadmissible,” according to The Sun.

“We had to bring Monica down to testify,” Mr. McDonough told the newspaper. “We had to go over to the Sheraton [in Towson] and rent a room on a personal credit card. We didn’t want anyone to know she was coming in. We put her in a presidential suite. Kind of ironic.”

In 2009, he co-litigated the successful prosecution of former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, a Democrat, who resigned from office after entering an Alford plea to a perjury charge involving her then-boyfriend, a developer, who benefited from city tax breaks and contracts.

In a related case, a jury found the mayor guilty of embezzling $500 worth of retail gift cards that were intended for the needy.

Ms. Dixon’s lawyers complained at the time about what they called Mr. McDonough’s office’s obsessive behavior when it came to the mayor.

“They have this list of targeted people,” Ms. Dixon told The Sun in 2018. “There’s a target on certain people. Where’s the motivation and who’s behind it? That’s the $65,000 question.”

In addition to the former mayor, Mr. McDonough led to the successful prosecution of former Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold, a Republican, in 2013, for misconduct in office, and former Baltimore County Superintendent of Schools Dallas Dance, who pleaded guilty to perjury in 2018.

Mr. McDonough told The Sun his motivation came from enforcing the law.

“It’s the power that gets them,” he said.

“Mike was the backbone of our office and kept us on an even keel,” said Mr. Davitt, who retired in 2019. “He had been active in every major political case the office had.

“Mike was a tough prosecutor when he had to be, but he was also a kind and compassionate man who was humble. He really was the unsung star of the office.”

Mr. McDonough retired in 2018.

He coached youth sports for the Greater Loch Raven Recreation Council and also headed the lacrosse program for the Parkville Recreation Council.

Mr. McDonough was a referee for both lacrosse and soccer in Central Maryland.

An avid golfer and member of the Parbusters Club, he enjoyed playing municipal courses.

Mr. McDonough was a choir member and had been president of the church council at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Parkville, where a celebration of life gathering will be held at 3 p.m. June 1.

In addition to his wife of 50 years, a retired Baltimore County public schools educator, Mr. McDonough is survived by his two sons, Jeremy McDonough, of Pikesville, and David McDonough, of Owings Mills, his mother, Marion S. McDonough, of Parkville; and five grandchildren.