NATION IN BRIEF : VIRGINIA : Barry Brings Suit Over Sex Inquiry

Former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry sued federal prison officials for $5.5 million, alleging that they damaged his name and political future by concluding that a woman performed oral sex on him in prison. Barry’s lawyers filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va. It alleges that Barry’s civil rights and privacy were violated during the prison investigation. Prison officials last week said Barry, 55, who is serving a six-month sentence for cocaine possession, violated prison rules in the sex incident, and they transferred him from a minimum-security facility at Petersburg, Va., to a more secure one in Loretto, Pa. The allegations were made by two inmates and their wives who said they witnessed the incident in a prison waiting room.