The Nation - News from April 14, 1989

A federal grand jury indicted Charles Lewis, the central figure in an investigation of alleged drug activity at a downtown hotel room frequented by Washington Mayor Marion Barry, on charges of cocaine possession and perjury. Lewis, also a key player in a controversial joint Washington, D.C.-Virgin Islands personnel project, was indicted on three counts of cocaine possession and seven counts of lying to the grand jury. Barry became the focus of intense media interest when police, on their way to question Lewis in his Ramada Inn motel room Dec. 22, were inexplicably diverted when it was learned the mayor was in the room with Lewis. The mayor has denied any knowledge of drugs in the room and was not named in the indictment. The mayor has offered little explanation of the visits, referring to Lewis only as “someone I know.”