Mayor Barry Does Not Take Stand as Defense Rests Its Case : Narcotics: Closing arguments on the drug and perjury charges are scheduled for next week. The jury is then expected to begin deliberations.

Defense attorneys for Marion Barry rested their case Friday without calling Washington’s mayor to the witness stand to answer federal charges of perjury and drug possession. The jury is expected to receive the case after lawyers make closing arguments next week.

R. Kenneth Mundy, the mayor’s chief attorney, called 17 witnesses during a weeklong presentation in which he sought to plant doubt in the minds of jurors about specific times and places where some prosecution witnesses said they had delivered drugs to Barry.

Mundy also sought to characterize prosecution testimony about the mayor’s extramarital affairs as highly exaggerated and to picture federal law enforcement agents as having singled out the mayor for selective prosecution, perhaps because of his race.

Meanwhile, during the testimony of FBI agent Ronald Stern, the last defense witness, a federal prosecutor told the court that Mundy’s allegation that black leaders have been singled out as targets for federal undercover operations “absolutely” is untrue.

With the jury absent from the courtroom, associate prosecutor Judith Retchin told U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson that Stern is “not part of a roving . . . assault force” aimed at black officeholders, as Mundy had charged on Thursday. Jackson had not permitted the jury to hear the original charge, by which Mundy was seeking to discredit an FBI “sting” operation last January in which Barry was secretly videotaped smoking crack cocaine with a former girlfriend at the Vista Hotel.

The judge ruled that the 83-minute videotape was legally obtained by FBI agents. Jurors viewed it last month as the keystone of the prosecution’s case.

Barry is charged with 10 counts of cocaine possession, one count of conspiracy to possess drugs and three counts of perjury before a federal grand jury that investigated his conduct.

Stern, called as a hostile witness by Mundy, was asked why the FBI had not arrested Barry in the Vista Hotel room the moment he took possession of the cocaine, instead of waiting to embarrass him by photographing him smoking the drug.

Stern, who supervised the operation, said agents needed to know whether Barry had “criminal intent” and that smoking the crack tended to show that. Barry otherwise might have discarded the drug after he was handed it by Rasheeda Moore, his former girlfriend who was cooperating in the sting, Stern testified.

“We had to wait to see what his intentions and what his motivations were,” Stern said. “Anything could have happened.”

During their weeklong defense, Mundy and his associate, Robert Mance, attacked the dates and circumstances alleged by the government in at least three of the misdemeanor cocaine possession charges, attempting to show jurors that the credibility or memory of some prosecution witnesses was open to question.

In one case, for example, defense witnesses testified that Barry was presiding over a meeting of city fire officials at the time Lydia R. Pearson, a convicted drug dealer, said she had made a delivery of drugs to the mayor. Pearson said she made 25 deliveries in all.

Countering other government witnesses who said Barry often sought sexual favors from women with whom he used cocaine, several witnesses called by Mundy, including some of the mayor’s personal security officers, said they never had witnessed such conduct.

Although such allegations do not amount to federal offenses, Barry’s associates have said he is concerned they might greatly offend the jury, which is largely composed of middle-aged black women.

Mundy suggested to the judge that he was unwilling to subject Barry to tough questioning by the prosecutors.

“I have advised Mr. Barry that no matter how we restrict his testimony . . . he would still be subject to cross-examination by the prosecution,” Mundy said.

After the defense rested, prosecutors Friday called four rebuttal witnesses, including the bearded skipper of a Virgin Islands sailboat used by Barry and some of his friends three years ago. The witness, Joe Brenay, said Barry often disappeared below deck, which tended to support earlier prosecution testimony that he used cocaine with women friends in a lavatory.

Asked to describe Barry’s demeanor when he emerged on deck again, Brenay drew laughter from the crowded courtroom by answering: “Well, I can tell you it seemed like his attitude was improved.”