D.C. Councilman Marion Barry’s attorney said that the latest criminal charge filed against him wouldn’t stand, as the woman whom Barry is accused of stalking was “not credible” and was “striking out against” him over a relationship gone bad.
Fred Cooke addressed reporters Monday outside the John A. Wilson Building regarding Barry’s Saturday night arrest by the U.S. Park Police, and the subsequent misdemeanor stalking charge. Barry, 73, is alleged to have stalked Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, his 40-year-old ex-girlfriend.
The former mayor attended the news conference but said nothing, at Cooke’s insistence, regarding his latest brush with the law.
“We believe that the charge is baseless,” Cooke said. “We believe that the charge stems from a relationship that has gone horribly wrong in a number of ways and has resulted in one party to that relationship striking out at Mr. Barry and repaying him for some of his kindness, some of his effort to be of assistance to that individual by offering up these charges we believe to be false.”
A court hearing was scheduled for Thursday. It is unclear whether the U.S. Attorney’s Office will pursue the case, though Cooke was confident it would not.
Asked Monday whether she would cooperate with prosecutors, Watts-Brighthaupt said, “No comment.”
“Once prosecutors conclude their findings and substantiate their charge, I could only hope that the consequences are just,” she said in a statement issued Monday.
The falling-out between the former couple accelerated last week, when Barry had the woman’s ex-husband, Delonta Brighthaupt, barred from an event at the Wilson Building. Brighthaupt had been “confrontational” in previous meetings, Cooke said.
D.C. police were investigating Barry’s claims that Brighthaupt had threatened him. Watts-Brighthaupt told The Examiner that Barry left her a voicemail, “Don’t let the [expletive] come up here or I’m going to have him arrested!”
“They say the truth lies somewhere in the middle, but in this case there is no middle,” said one law enforcement officer familiar with the investigation. “Well, maybe a center, because there is a triangle.”
Barry and Watts-Brighthaupt had planned to spend the July Fourth holiday in Rehoboth Beach, Del., Cooke said, but they returned to Southeast Washington on Saturday after eating lunch in Annapolis. The Ward 8 councilman was driving home from her house when he was stopped by a Park Police officer, his lawyer said.
Police sources said Watts-Brighthaupt and Brighthaupt, 46, waved over the Park Police officer after he stopped Barry for making an illegal turn near Anacostia Park. They were nearby, in her truck.
Barry is on probation through 2011 for failing to pay federal and local taxes.
