Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 11, 1990 TAG: 9005110156
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The new accusations were added to eight charges the grand jury leveled three months ago, and increased the potential penalties - if the mayor were convicted on all 14 counts - to a total of 26 years in prison and $1,850,000 in fines.
U.S. Attorney Jay B. Stephens, in announcing the new charges, stressed that his investigation of alleged corruption in the District of Columbia government and "illegal narcotics activity" in the city is ongoing, signaling that further charges may come.
Both the mayor's office and his lawyers declined to comment on the charges. Barry pleaded not guilty to the eight earlier charges, and is expected to offer a similar plea to the new 14-count indictment.
In the new indictment, which replaced the one issued Feb. 15, Barry is accused of a conspiracy dating back to the fall of 1984 to obtain and use cocaine and "crack" cocaine with more than 10 other individuals in "more than 20 locations" - at private homes, government offices, businesses and on boats, inside and outside the United States.
That accusation, plus five new charges of possessing cocaine or crack in a time span dating back to November 1987, enlarged the prosecutors' case beyond two episodes that were at the center of the previous drug charges.
Legal experts suggested Thursday that the prosecutors were apparently intending to show a broad pattern of illegal drug use, thus encouraging jurors not to focus only on isolated instances.
Previously, the 54-year-old mayor was accused of five charges of possessing cocaine on several days during December 1988 and on Jan. 18 of this year, the night he was arrested in an undercover operation at a downtown Washington hotel. He also had been charged with three counts of lying to the grand jury about his and others' alleged drug abuse.
Barry is scheduled to go on trial in federal court here June 4, but the grand jury's action Thursday raised the possibility that the trial might be delayed. Prosecutors, however, are understood to be ready for the trial.
Legal experts who commented privately on the new indictment suggested that the added charges were pursued primarily to increase the chances of convictions.
The eight earlier charges against Barry had appeared to depend heavily on the testimony of two of his longtime friends who have been cooperating with federal investigators: Charles Lewis and Hazel Diane "Rasheeda" Moore.
Prosecutors were reportedly somewhat concerned that Barry's lawyers would be able to persuade the jury that Lewis and Moore had been used to "entrap" the mayor into illegal drug use.
by CNB