Marion Barry has taken on federal and local law enforcement officials several times in his long career. He’s still undefeated.
But in Bob Bennett, D.C.’s “mayor for life” meets an entirely different adversary. After all, not many prosecutors can claim to have jailed Jesus.
In his 2008 memoir, Bennett details his time as a junior prosecutor. One afternoon in 1967, a haggard woman “came to the office and complained that there was a serious problem in her neighborhood and that no one would help her or even talk to her about it.”
“Mr. Bennett,” the woman said, “I am a God-fearing woman but I must tell you that Jesus has been causing a lot of problems in our neighborhood.”
Seeing that the woman was obviously ill, Bennett made a promise: “I will call a police friend and we will lock Jesus up and put him some place so he will never bother you again.” The woman thanked Bennett, calling him “a man of action.”
Emotionally stable people say that about Bennett, too.
“He wants to make sure his client is treated right, whether it’s Bill Clinton or Clark Clifford or someone you’ve never heard of,” said Lawrence Barcella, one of D.C.’s elite defense lawyers. “That goes back to that Jesuit education. They can be very rough, but they try to instill a very strong sense of right and wrong.”
John Dowd, another top defense lawyer, said Bennett has learned the lesson well.
“He’s got a great sense of fair play,” Dowd said.
In the late 1980s, Dowd represented Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., when McCain was facing a Senate ethics probe because of his cozy relationship with savings and loan swindler Charles Keating. Although there were other members of the “Keating Five,” McCain was the only Republican, and the Democrat-controlled committee voted to haul McCain before it. Bennett was the committee’s special counsel.
“He had to walk a fine line and not rebel against the judgment of his client,” Dowd said. “But on the other hand, in describing Senator McCain’s actions, he was very, very fair. He took an awful lot of grief. You get tugged and pulled by the committee members, the press and polls.”
Whatever the outcome of Bennett’s investigation of Barry, the ex-mayor and the public can be sure that it will be the fairest possible result, Barcella said.
“He doesn’t need this to make his reputation,” he said. “What you see is what you get.”
