Prosecutors drop request of jail time for Marion Barry
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
April 16, 2009
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| D.C. Councilman Marion Barry, surrounded by staff and family, addresses the media outside U.S. District Court following a hearing in his tax case. |
Surrounded by friends and family, D.C. Councilman Marion Barry left the U.S. District Court a confident man: It appeared he would not be going to jail for failing to file his 2007 tax returns.
“The government can read the tea leaves,” Barry, the Ward 8 council member, said after a nearly three-hour hearing Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson.
Federal prosecutors withdrew their request that the former mayor face jail time for failing to timely file his tax returns, asking Robinson instead to extend Barry’s probation, confine him to his home for 30 days, and put a temporary curfew on his night and weekend activities.
The retraction came after Barry’s probation officer, Kurt Panzer, told Robinson that the halfway house and federal prison on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, to which Barry might have been sent, are not equipped to handle the council member’s health issues.
Barry, 72, recently underwent a kidney transplant, is a prostate cancer survivor, and suffers from diabetes and hypertension.
Robinson offered no timeline as to when she would issue a written ruling. It appeared, however, that jail time was improbable. Barry, speaking quietly and appearing frail, said he was “not going to let this distract me from my health and my work.” He said he would “take full responsibility,” but argued that the government “paints the worst picture, distorts the truth.”
The U.S. attorney for D.C. initially wanted Barry, who remains on probation for failing to file his 1999-2004 federal and D.C. tax returns, jailed for failing to timely file his 2007 returns.
Barry’s longtime attorney Frederick Cooke told Robinson that the councilman was distracted by his severe renal failure and did not “willfully” fail to file, as prosecutors suggested. Barry has since submitted his 2007 and 2008 returns, Cooke said, and is repaying his six-figure debt to both the District and the Internal Revenue Service through regular paycheck garnishments.
“If there were mistakes made, they were driven by the concerns about his health,” Cooke said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Zeno replied: “To put it politely, this is unconvincing.”
Just in the past eight months, Zeno said, Barry has traveled to Jamaica, won re-election and worked actively as a D.C. Council member. Letting him off the hook, the prosecutor said, would send a bad message.
“Marion Barry is a man of substance and talent,” Zeno said, “and he should have used those gifts to avoid this situation.”
