Barry’s speech may be part of a last-ditch strategy for a defendant who faces a maximum penalty of $1.85 million in fines and 26 years in prison. By all accounts, investigators have a strong case, including testimony by more than a dozen former associates that Barry used cocaine. So far his lawyers have had no luck negotiating a plea bargain. With the mayor’s promise to leave quietly, they may now hope to persuade prosecutors to drop the three felony charges for perjury. Their chances look dim. Though he made no public response to Barry’s announcement, federal prosecutor Jay B. Stephens insists that any plea bargain include at least one felony charge. Whether the mayor leaves office, Stephens says, is “irrelevant.”
Some blacks believe that white investigators zealously pursued Barry because of his race. Many Barry supporters argue that the Vista Hotel sting, in which FBI agents videotaped the mayor’s former girlfriend persuading him to smoke crack, was entrapment. Jesse Jackson, who urged Barry not to run, last week denounced a “pattern” of investigations against black politicians, including several congressmen.
Blacks make up 70 percent of Washington’s voters, and five blacks are running for mayor in a field of six candidates. While Washington adjusts to life without Barry in city hall, he will have to cope with changes, too. Because he hasn’t been in the government long enough to receive a pension, supporters have been setting up trust funds and proposing careers–as a business consultant or foundation director. But what are plummy jobs for most retired mayors may be out of reach to a man driven from office by charges of drug abuse.
