Barry to Call Security Men as Trial Witnesses

A defense attorney for embattled Mayor Marion Barry told a federal judge Tuesday that he would call two members of the mayor’s round-the-clock security detail as witnesses for Barry, a move that suggested Barry may claim the government entrapped him into smoking crack cocaine in a hotel encounter with a former girlfriend.

Defense lawyer R. Kenneth Mundy disclosed the names of the guards, James Stays and Fred Gaskins, on the second day of an arduous jury-selection process that appears likely to take more than a week. Stays or Gaskins often have driven Barry around Washington on what the mayor has called his “night owl” outings.

Government attorneys have told the court that a key piece of evidence in their 14-count drug-use and perjury case against Barry is an hour-long videotape, made by FBI agents with a hidden camera, that allegedly shows Barry smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room with a former girlfriend, Rasheeda Moore. Barry was arrested immediately after the incident last Jan. 18 by agents who burst through the door from an adjoining room.

Government sources have said that there is nothing on the tape suggesting that Moore induced Barry to commit an act for which he was not predisposed. In such cases, however, defense lawyers often try to establish what may have occurred off-camera.

Mundy also said that two social friends of the mayor would be among his witnesses, raising the possibility that they may seek to counter government claims that Barry has been a regular drug user since 1984.

Although Barry was initially indicted last Feb. 15 on the basis of the FBI “sting” operation, charges of long-term drug use were added to the case last month when the Justice Department obtained a so-called “superseding indictment” that contained six new counts alleging a lengthy pattern of cocaine abuse.

Prosecutors have given Barry’s lawyers the names of 19 unindicted co-conspirators--most of them former associates of the mayor--who allegedly will testify that they helped Barry obtain cocaine over the years and witnessed him using it.

Mundy said that he may call Daniel Butler, a neighborhood activist who reportedly has been a late-night social companion of the mayor for many years. He said that a second potential witness would be David Rivers, an indicted former city official and close friend of Barry who is currently on trial in the same federal courthouse for allegedly directing city contracts to friends and business associates.

Rivers and his co-defendant, contractor John Clyburn, often have socialized with the mayor.

Barry, 54, who is considering running for a fourth four-year term this year, arrived at court looking tired, but in a jaunty mood. He joked with reporters that the sunny spring weather was more suitable for playing tennis, gesturing as if holding a racket.

By late afternoon, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson personally had questioned 12 of the 250 prospective jurors who had been given a written questionnaire. Of that dozen, nine were deemed by Jackson to be qualified for a final jury pool.

Through this procedure, the judge hopes to get more than 40 qualified persons from which a 12-member jury and six alternate jurors will be selected, probably next week.