Barry Witness Tells of Calls to Go Over Story : Trial: He testifies that he and the Washington mayor conferred on what they would say to police about their crack-smoking sessions.

Convicted drug dealer Charles Lewis testified Wednesday that he and Washington Mayor Marion Barry conferred by telephone about the story they would tell investigators about their crack-smoking sessions in a motel room in late 1988.

Lewis, a former city worker and key prosecution witness, said during his second day of testimony in the mayor’s drug and perjury trial that Barry called him three days after the two men had smoked crack cocaine in the bathroom of a Ramada Inn on Dec. 22, 1988.

“We were trying to fix the damage,” Lewis said of the mayor’s call. He said that a reporter’s inquiry had tipped Lewis to the fact that police were investigating him as a drug-trafficking suspect.

“We had a problem and we needed to get our story straight,” he said.

Lewis said that he and the mayor conducted a brief conversation in an improvised code to make sure they would tell the same story about what had happened in the room. “I said: ‘You didn’t see any drugs in the room, did you Mr. Mayor?’ and he said: ‘Right, I didn” Lewis said, reenacting the conversation.

Prosecutor Judith Retchin asked Lewis why they spoke in cryptic language. Lewis said he feared the hotel room phone had been tapped by investigators. “I didn’t want to talk about drugs in a positive way,” he said.

Lewis said that he and Barry talked the next day to go over their story again. He said that he called Barry’s office and used a name he felt certain would get his call answered by the mayor but that would conceal his identity. The name was Alexander Faraday, borrowed from the governor of the Virgin Islands, said Lewis, who is a native of the U.S. territory.

During this conversation, Lewis said that he was going to speak with police and wanted Barry’s advice on what to do if the police demanded a drug test. He said that Barry suggested a home remedy of drinking lemon juice and water.

“What did you do?” Retchin asked.

“I used a considerable amount of lemon juice and water,” Lewis replied.

Lewis has testified that he and Barry smoked crack in the hotel on four occasions during the last week of December in 1988.

Federal prosecutors have charged Barry with three felony counts of perjury, 10 misdemeanor counts of cocaine use and one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to possess cocaine. If convicted on all counts, Barry faces up to 26 years in prison and $1.85 million in fines.

Under cross-examination by defense lawyer R. Kenneth Mundy, Lewis acknowledged that he agreed to testify against Barry only after he was convicted of two counts of cocaine distribution. Lewis, 50, was sentenced earlier this year to 15 months in prison and faces up to 20 years on another drug conviction in the Virgin Islands.

Lewis previously had told a grand jury that he and Barry did not use drugs, but he changed his story after reaching a plea agreement with the federal prosecutors. Under that agreement, the government released Lewis from federal prison and dropped 14 felony counts against him in exchange for his testimony against Barry.