Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 21, 1990                   TAG: 9006210430
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

BARRY DEFENSE SAYS WITNESS, U.S. HAD DEAL

Defense attorney Kenneth Mundy said Wednesday that Lewis' testimony is influenced by the fact that he still hopes to get a Justice Department recommendation of leniency when he is sentenced for a drug conviction in his native Virgin Islands.

"If you testify to exonerate the mayor . . . you wouldn't get that letter" of leniency, Mundy said during Lewis' second day of testimony in Barry's cocaine and perjury trial in U.S. District Court.

"My testimony isn't to convict the mayor," Lewis insisted. He said he is simply trying to testify "completely and truthfully."

Lewis acknowledged that he didn't start cooperating with the government until he was convicted in the Virgin Islands drug case in 1989. But he insisted that the agreement with the government "wasn't like a present."

Lewis was released recently from prison after serving seven months on two drug-related charges. Perjury charges have been dropped.

"You got a pretty sweet deal, didn't you?" said Mundy.

"I don't have anything to measure it by," Lewis replied.

"Except self-preservation," the lawyer suggested.

Lewis testified that he and Barry smoked crack cocaine on four occasions in December 1988 at Lewis' hotel room. Lewis said that an hour after Barry brought a crack pipe to the room and smoked crack there, Lewis found out from a Washington Post reporter that he was under suspicion by police for involvement with drugs.

In a telephone call later in the day, Lewis and Barry agreed Lewis would tell police the same thing he had told the reporter: that there were no drugs in Lewis' room and that neither the mayor nor Lewis used any drugs.

"Did you and Mr. Barry talk about what you were going to tell the police?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith Retchin asked.

"Yes," Lewis replied.

"What was your understanding?" Retchin asked.

"I would tell the police the same thing I told the Post reporter," Lewis replied.

"The truth or a lie?" Retchin asked.

"I told the Post reporter a lie and therefore I would be telling the police a lie," Lewis testified.

In a later phone conversation with Barry, Lewis said he was concerned about a possible drug test the police might administer when he went in for an interview.

He said he asked Barry if there was anything he could he do to get the drugs out of his system.

"He said `yes,' " Lewis recalled. "Lemon juice and lots of water."

Retchin asked Lewis what he did.

"I used a considerable amount of lemon juice and lots of water," he replied as the courtroom erupted in laughter.

Lewis said he lied to the police and later to a federal grand jury.