D.C. Councilman Marion Barry left a federal courtroom in mid-April following a hearing on his failure to file federal and local tax returns confident he wasn’t going to jail. Prosecutors, about an hour earlier, had dropped that request.
“The government can read the tea leaves,” the former mayor said at the time.
He was right. A federal judge Friday ordered that the former mayor’s probation be extended for two years.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson struck down the U.S. attorney’s motion to confine Barry in his home for 30 days and put a temporary curfew on his night and weekend activities. She instead rebuked prosecutors for sloppy trial work.
Prosecutors accused Barry, D-Ward 8, of willfully failing to file his 2007 tax returns in a timely manner. The 72-year-old, a recent recipient of a new kidney, already was on probation for failing to file his 1999-2004 returns.
His probation will be extended to March 8, 2011.
“While we strongly disagree with some of the court’s characterizations and findings of fact, we’ll decline further comment at this time as we continue to analyze the court’s opinion,” said Channing Phillips, spokesman for the U.S. attorney for D.C.
Robinson took assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Zeno to task for failing to call a single witness “in an effort to prove the new criminal conduct which he alleged.” Prosecutors offered no evidence “at all with respect to an element of the offenses,” she wrote, and they “failed even to attempt to demonstrate … that Defendant’s failure to timely file his 2007 tax returns was willful.”
Frederick Cooke, Barry’s attorney, told Robinson during the hearing that the councilman was distracted by his severe renal failure and did not “willfully” fail to file. Barry has submitted his 2007 and 2008 returns and is repaying his six-figure debt to both the District and the Internal Revenue Service through regular paycheck garnishments.
Barry could not be reached for comment.
