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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990                   TAG: 9007200185
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

BARRY LEAD WITNESS ACCUSED OF DRUG USE

The defense of Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. got off to a shaky start Thursday when the prosecution ambushed the leadoff witness with an accusation of cocaine use.

The witness, James L. Stays, a mayoral bodyguard for the past 11 years, seemed to be nearing the end of a brief, bland cross-examination when Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith W. Retchin asked for a conference with U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson.

Then, with Stays and the jury absent, Retchin startled the courtroom by telling Judge Jackson, "The government has evidence that this witness used cocaine within the [federal] statute of limitations."

That means the alleged drug use occured within the past five years, leaving Stays open to charges. Retchin said the evidence is grand jury testimony from another person.

The allegation seemed to catch both Jackson and Barry's attorneys off guard. The judge halted the trial for 40 minutes while a federal magistrate rounded up an attorney to represent Stays.

The two sides jousted before and after the noontime lunch break over admitting evidence of Stays' drug use until Jackson concluded that Retchin could ask Stays about possible drug use. He also ruled that the government could later call a rebuttal witness if Stays denied the allegation.

by CNB