Federal prosecutors on Thursday withdrew their request that D.C. Councilman Marion Barry face jail time for failing to file his tax returns, asking a judge instead to extend the former mayor’s probation and confine him to his home for 30 days.
The retraction came after Barry’s probation officer told U.S. District Court Magistrate Deborah Robinson that the halfway house and federal prison — both on Maryland’s Eastern Shore — to which Barry might have been sent are not equipped to handle the Ward 8 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 — that Robinson would likely extend Barry’s probation by a year or two, as prosecutors requested.
“The government can read the tea leaves,” Barry said after the nearly three-hour hearing.
Barry, quiet and frail, said he’s “not going to let this distract me from my health and my work.”
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. In any case, Cooke said, Barry has filed 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.
“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 in Jamaica, won reelection and actively conducted business as a member of the D.C. Council. If the court lets him off the hook, the prosecutor said, it is difficult to see why any other citizen would confirm their conduct to the demands of the law.
“Marion Barry is a man of substance and talent,” Zeno said, “and he should have used those gifts to avoid this situation.”
