Was Pressured to Testify, Witness Against Barry Says

A witness at the trial of Washington Mayor Marion Barry said Friday that he was testifying under “intense pressure” from the government and that his recollections of the timing of cocaine use with the mayor were heavily influenced by the FBI and prosecutors.

Darrell Sabbs, appearing for a second day in Barry’s cocaine and perjury case, testified that he had changed his story four times about what year he said he had snorted cocaine with Barry in the back room of a restaurant.

Sabbs, a Barry friend reluctantly testifying for the prosecution, said that he had used cocaine with Barry five times between 1986 through 1989. But he said also that he has great difficulty remembering the years of the alleged use.

In fact, Sabbs said, he cannot even recall when he moved away from Washington. He previously told a grand jury that he thought it was around 1979. He now thinks it was 1984.

He is “under intense pressure by the government to testify,” Sabbs told the court.

Barry attorney R. Kenneth Mundy suggested to Sabbs that he had been told by the FBI regarding certain details of his alleged cocaine use with the mayor: “It had to be this way.”

“Yes,” Sabbs replied.

“That happened repeatedly,” Mundy said.

Mundy’s questioning of Sabbs reflected the overall defense strategy of putting the government’s conduct on trial, trying to show that witnesses were improperly coached by overzealous FBI agents out to get Barry and that the witnesses were pressured to cut deals to avoid facing drug charges themselves.

The flamboyant Barry, one of the country’s best known black politicians, is on trial for 14 criminal charges of cocaine possession and perjury.

Mundy said Friday that Barry is “champing at the bit” to testify in his own defense but that no decision has been made on whether he will do so.