Friend of Mayor Barry Arrested

Charles Lewis, whose visits with Mayor Marion Barry in December at a downtown Ramada Inn provoked a major controversy, was arrested at a Virgin Islands hotel Friday on charges of selling cocaine to an undercover FBI agent.

Lewis was charged with distribution of cocaine and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, according to an FBI spokesman in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In late December, U.S. Atty. Jay B. Stephens began a federal grand jury probe into possible violations of drug and obstruction of justice statutes in the Ramada Inn episode. Two detectives planning to make an undercover drug buy from Lewis on Dec. 22 left the hotel after learning that Barry was in Lewis’ hotel room.

FBI agents arrested Lewis in an eighth floor room at the luxurious Frenchman’s Reef hotel in St. Thomas after he allegedly sold one of them six or seven grams of crack, a potent form of cocaine, according to FBI officials and a hotel spokesman.

Barry, who has testified twice before the grand jury, issued a brief statement on the arrest. “This will raise the specter that something illegal happened when I visited Mr. Lewis when he was in Washington last December. . . . I never saw any drugs or drug paraphernalia during my visits with Mr. Lewis,” he said.