Ex-Official Admits Guilt in City Thefts : Crime: The former Newport Beach utilities director says he embezzled $1.8 million to support a lavish lifestyle.

Former Newport Beach Utilities Director Robert J. Dixon pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that he embezzled $1.8 million from the city to buy art, jewelry, stocks, and pay for lavish trips abroad.

Dixon, 48, appearing gaunt and speaking softly, entered the plea to two counts of embezzlement before Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan. Dixon faces up to seven years in prison on the charges and is scheduled to be sentenced June 11.

He was arrested by Newport Beach police Jan. 13 for allegedly depositing in his personal bank accounts more than 400 city checks payable to nonexistent property owners. His arrest stunned many city officials and his close friends, who couldn’t believe that Dixon, a leading contender to replace retiring City Manager Robert L. Wynn, would steal money from the city.

Equally shocking to his colleagues was the disclosure that he had a prior conviction for embezzlement in 1972 while he was employed by Georgetown University. Wynn, who has since retired, said he was aware of the conviction and believed that the “thing had been resolved . . . and justice was done.”

Friends described Dixon as an avid traveler and art collector, who took vacations abroad to attend art auctions and in one year traveled to Europe, Tahiti and made numerous trips to New York City to attend the theater and other performing arts events.

A bachelor, Dixon established an especially close relationship with the New York-based American Ballet Theater, donating thousands of dollars to the company and even serving for a time on its Board of Directors. For a time, Dixon dated one of the principal dancers, friends said.

On his travels, he often stayed in the best hotels, renting rooms that cost upward of $400 a night. Often he would treat his friends to trips.

At home, he collected black and white photographs, focusing in particular on the 1920s and ‘30s. The walls of his trilevel condominium in Huntington Beach were dominated by framed prints. Police seized more than 220 of the photographs.

Dixon’s attorney, Stephan A. DeSales of Fullerton, said he has confessed to everything. “He has admitted that it is his fault and he is responsible for what he did. But he doesn’t know why he did it or why he has this compulsive behavior,” he said.

Dixon has turned over everything he owns to Newport Beach for restitution for the money he embezzled over a 10-year period. He signed over his last paychecks, personal accounts, his rights to a luxury condominium in Jamaica for two weeks each year, his Huntington Beach townhouse, land in Arizona, a BMW automobile, 39 credit cards, rights to his city pension and an extensive art collection. DeSales said in all, Dixon’s assets should total between $800,000 and $900,000.

“I honestly think he was relieved when he got caught,” said DeSales, referring to the obviousness of his scheme. “It was like an elephant with mud on its feet walking across a white rug.”