Witness Against Barry Says He Killed Her City Contract

Rasheeda Moore, who participated in an FBI sting against Mayor Marion Barry, testified today that she lost a city contract in 1988 because she refused his request for a sexual favor.

Testifying for the fifth day at the mayor’s drug and perjury trial, Moore said that when she rejected Barry’s overture, he said, “You refuse, therefore you refuse the contract.”

Moore testified that in 1986, when she was romantically involved with Barry, her city contract for a summer youth program was approved speedily “after the mayor told me it would be.”

The city spent more than $180,000 on “Project Me,” a modeling program designed by Moore to build self-esteem.

But in 1988, just after her affair with Barry had ended, she went to a room at the Vista Hotel where she met with Barry and another woman, Maria McCarthy, Moore testified.

“Mr. Barry suggested I put Maria McCarthy in charge of the administrative end” of Project Me, Moore said in response to questions by Assistant U.S. Atty. Judith Retchin.

“We were using drugs,” Moore testified. After McCarthy left, Barry asked Moore to join him.

“Was there a sexual request?” said Retchin.

“Yes,” Moore said on redirect examination by the prosecution.

“Did you comply?” Retchin asked.

“No,” Moore replied.

Moore testified that at that point Barry said, “You refuse, therefore you refuse the contract.”

She said Barry told her that “because I refused” his request for a sexual favor, he would be unable to “promise me the contract this year.”

The program was not renewed.

Moore’s testimony about the contract followed her cross-examination by Barry’s lawyer, R. Kenneth Mundy, that began last Thursday.

Mundy said Moore, who participated in an FBI sting against the mayor, has received more than $32,000 in government aid. She is in the government’s witness protection program.

Moore denied receiving such a sum. “I haven’t,” she said.