Prosecutor drops request of jail time for Barry

Published April 15, 2009 4:00am ET



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.

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