Part 18 -- City on Trial

This is the eighteenth installment of a series (see the first installment here) summarizing the 1994 book Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C.by Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood. This book has recently been republished as an ebook and a paper book. HBO has plans to use material from the book to make a movie about the life of Marion Barry.

Chapter 15: City on Trial (three of three) 

After the dramatic premiere of the videotape showing Marion Barry smoking crack at the Vista Hotel, the prosecution laid on ten witnesses who testified that they used drugs with Barry, along with dealers and non-drug-taking witnesses.

Barry's attorney "Ken Mundy put on a perfunctory defense that lasted only a few days" (Kindle location 5113).

"Based purely on the facts, Barry's defense looked weak mesured against the government's overwhelming evidence.... It was clear that he went to great lengths to obtain the drugs and conspired to buy it.... It was also quite plain that he'd lied about his drug use.... Witness after witness had described using narcotics with the mayor, and the government introduced the mayor's own phone logs that proved that he made calls to many of the people who testified. If the jurors believe only half of the evidence, there was enough to convict Barry on most of the counts, including the felonies" (l. 5120).

"But there was much more than simple evidence at work in this case. The larger issues of race and politics and government power loomed over the courtroom and permeated every piece of evidence. When the testimony was complete, power shifted to the jury" (l. 5121).

"The case of U.S. v. Barry went to the jury on August 2, 1990" (l. 5139).

"But from the first hours of deliberation, the twelve jurors were deadlocked -- some frozen in their divergent views as were the people of Washington, D.C. There were two separate realities: One accepted and trusted the American system of justice; the other believed in a conspiracy against blacks. Across that chasm, consensus would be hard to reach" (l. 5148).

"In the end, after eight days of frustrating debate, the jurors cut a deal. On eleven of the fourteen counts, including three felony charges, they were hopelessly deadlocked by scores of 7-5 and 6-6. They didn't vote on the conspiracy count. But on two counts they decided to strike a balance." (l. 5167).

"The outcome had more to do with horse-trading than with weighing the evidence. The antigovernment, pro-Barry bloc denied the prosecution its felonies and gained acquittal on one misdemeanor. The other jurors saved face and some integrity by hitting Barry with one misdemeanor. It was a political rather than a judicial verdict" (l. 5168).

"The jurors sent a note to Judge Jackson at 4:25 p.m., August 10, a Friday" (l. 5169). The jury foreman said the jury had found Barry not guilty of one misdemeanor count, and guilty of one misdemeanor count. The judge send the jurors back to try again. A short while later, the foreman sent a note saying the jury was hopelessly deadlocked.

"Eight minutes later [Judge Thomas Penfield] Jackson called the jurors back and declared a mistrial" (l. 5177).

"Marion Barry wept.... He thought there was little likelihood of a jail sentence. He had taken on the government and won. His supporters in the room cried and grabbed him. He hugged Mundy and left the courtroom amid a throng of wellwishers" (l. 5178).

"Word already had spread outside.... The mayor walked from the side door around to the front in a victory march that thrilled his waiting fans but apparently infuriated Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. In front of the courthouse, the crowd erupted in a chant of 'Ba-rry, Ba-rry, Ba-rry!' The mayor soaked it in for a few minutes and headed off into the late summer evening" (l. 5184).

"When [US Assistant Attorney General and lead prosecutor] Jay Stephens tried to hold a press conference on the steps, the raucous crowd booed and shouted him down. Horns of passing motorists honked along Pennsylvania Avenue. Not since the Washington Redskins won the Super Bowl had the town seen such spontaneous celebration" (l. 5186).

Cheater's Guide to Dream City continues

All posts are cross-posted on Short Articles about Long Meetings.

Full disclosure: I have a commercial relationship with Amazon. I will receive a very small portion of the money people spend after clicking on an Amazon link on this site.

This is a great book and well worth reading in its entirety.

Read the next installment here.

Part 17 -- City on Trial

This is the seventeenth installment of a series (see the first installment here) summarizing the 1994 book Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C.by Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood. This book has recently been republished as an ebook and a paper book. HBO has plans to use material from the book to make a movie about the life of Marion Barry.

 Chapter 15: City on Trial (two of three)

Just before the start of Barry's 1989 drug trial, one of the lead investigators on the case told another investigator: "Unfortunately, a lot of those jurors are going to base their decision purely on the issue of race. If I'm a juror, and think that the investigation was racially motivated, I vote to acquit."

The second investigator "simply couldn't believe it; he certainly could never accept it. 'You're dead wrong', he said. He looked away for a moment and said, 'I hope you're dead wrong' " (Kindle location 4909).

On the first day of the trial, Barry sat with his lawyer, R. Kenneth Mundy, an African-American. His wife Effi sat in the second row of spectators. US Associate Attorney General Jay Stephens also was in the audience. Ricky Roberts ("tall, stiff, light-skinned African American" (l.  4948)) made the opening statement for the prosecution on June 18, 1990.

" 'This is a case about deceit and deception,' he told the jury" (l. 4928).

Mundy's tactic was to put the government on trial.

" 'This case is about the deals the government made with the devil,' he said, asking jurors to remove the headlines from their minds, and pretend they had just awakened from a long sleep. 'Seven years ago the government made a determination that it would get Marion Barry, and it would to to any lengths, any extremes to get him' " (l. 4930).

"Ken Mundy... was a master of making jurors see the world through his eyes. He played the homeboy attorney, talking to the twelve men and women as if they were neighbors" (l. 4955).

"Mundy had no special love for Barry and vacillated before taking the case after the Vista bust. He had supported his cousin, former council chairman Sterling Tucker, against Barry in the 1978 mayoral campaign. He knew that defending Barry now would require a full frontal assault on the system of justice, and he wondered what the members of the 'club' would think of him. In his moment of indecision, NAACP executive director Benjamin Hooks personally urged him to take the case" (l. 4960).

Nelson Mandela started a visit on DC on June 25, while jurors heard testimony from women on the receiving end of Barry's unwanted sexual advances.

"The mayor had vowed to keep a proper distance between his tawdry trail and Nelson Mandela's triumphant celebration and put his intentions in a letter to Mandela's tour committee ..." (l. 4992).

However, Barry appeared at a private fundraiser for Mandela. "Barry showed up with ten aides, bodyguards, and a photographer. Pushing and shoving, they forced their way into the room just so that Barry could have his photograph taken with Mandela. Barry's stunt preempted the fundraiser, and thousands of dollars were lost as the mayor kept the Mandelas occupied while one of his aides went looking for a key to the city" (l. 5001).

Barry showed off his pictures with Mandela in the courtroom to reporters in the press section.

Hazel Diane "Rasheeda" Moore described her multi-year drug-fueled affair with Barry. Mundy made Moore look bad on cross-examination.

 "Street vendors did a brisk business in T-shirts that said: 'Bitch set him up' " (l. 5027).

"Effi Barry escorted her husband back to the District Building after Rasheeda Moore's first day of testimony, took him into his office, and slammed the door. Aides then heard the First Lady scream: 'I'm a person too. I have to sit and listen to all this. How do you think I feel?' " (l. 5028).

"That night the mayor took his wife for a suprise appearance at a rally for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan at the Convention Center, just one night after Nelson Mandela's speech..." (l. 5029).

Barry had had a "rocky relationship" with Farrakhan, a vocal anti-Semite. He accused Barry of "bowing down" to the Jews who had contributed to his election campaign. But at this moment they made common cause.

The next day, Farrakhan tried to appear in the courtroom as Barry's guest. The judge barred Farrakhan for the duration of the case. The action was eventually reversed after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complain, but by that time Farrakhan had moved on.

On the same day Farrakhan was barred, the jury saw the video of Barry smoking crack at the Vista Hotel for the first time.

Outside the courtroom, "...most saw the quick clips played on the TV news. The distilled version showed two scenes: the mayor drawing deeply and professionally from the crack pipe, and authorities crashing noisily into the room. The people who judged Barry's guilt or innocence on the single frame that made newspapers all over the world -- the picture of Barry hitting the crack pipe -- got an even more one-dimensional view" (l. 5086).

"The issue of who first mentioned drugs was debatable, but once Barry had the crack pipe, it was quite clear that he knew exactly what to do with it. There was no doubt he bought crack, that he possessed crack, that he smoked crack. The evidence seemed to ensure a conviction, but it was neutralized by the following scene showing the police and FBI agents piling into the room. It was a violent and disturbing scene" (l. 5094).

"The Vista tape, besides being an embarrassing peep show, left the impression that Barry was hoodwinked twice: once to come to the room and again to smoke crack. It didn't fit the legal definition of entrapment, but that was irrelevant. It looked like a trap, a con job" (l. 5095).

"Ken Mundy knew that, and he made certain that the jurors saw the tape over and over again. It turned out to be his best weapon" (l. 5096).

Cheater's Guide to Dream City continues

All posts are cross-posted on Short Articles about Long Meetings.

Full disclosure: I have a commercial relationship with Amazon. I will receive a very small portion of the money people spend after clicking on an Amazon link on this site.

This is a great book and well worth reading in its entirety.

Read the next installment here.

Part 15 -- Knife in the Heart

This is the fifteenth installment of a series (see the first installment here) summarizing the 1994 book Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C.by Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood. This book has recently been republished as an ebook and a paper book. HBO has plans to use material from the book to make a movie about the life of Marion Barry.


Chapter 14: Knife in the Heart

This is the chapter where Marion Barry is caught on video smoking crack at the Vista Hotel.

The operation that eventually snagged Barry started with former Barry colleague Charles Lewis, who was facing a potential 200 years in prison on drug charges in DC and the US Virgin Islands.

"Federal officers worried that someone would try to kill Lewis in the District, so they moved him to a more secure jail in Alexandria, Virginia, right across the Potomac River, and to [a secure FBI building in] Quantico for serious questioning" (Kindle location 4420).

"The prosecutor and FBI agents participated, but the [DC] police officers controlled the session. Lewis described his first trips with Barry to the Virgin Islands back in 1986, when they first used cocaine together. He gave them fresh details of Barry's visit in 1988 as part of the government-to-government personnel project, and he described the parade of women that he brought to the mayor's room" (l. 4435).

Lewis also identified Barry's longtime loved and cocaine supplier, Hazel Diane "Rasheeda" Moore, from a photograph. Moore had left the DC area and was living under greatly reduced circumstances with her children in New York and Los Angeles, addicted to alcohol and drugs. The FBI couldn't find her, so they put out a warrant.

On December 31, 1988, Moore was arrested in Los Angeles for driving under the influence of alcohol. FBI agents travelled to Los Angeles to speak with Moore.

"They gave her a choice: Cooperate with the investigation or face at minimum a perjury chrage, which was enough to send her to prison on a felony count that would probably cost her the custody of her children. Moore made no immediate decision, but ... agents brought her and the children back to Washington..." (l. 4505).

Barry's behavior was increasingly erratic, while insisting he was clean and sober. Some friends and allies tried to convince Barry not to run, but Barry planned to announce his intention to seek re-election on January 21, 1989 1990.

At the same time, Moore agreed to act as bait in an FBI setup to trap Barry. It was originally scheduled for January 15 -- Martin Luther King's birthday. Concerned about appearances, the FBI postponed the sting until January 18.

In the early evening of January 18, Barry was trying to convince a wealthy attorney to back his campaign. He received a phone call. Barry told the attorney he had to be at a political event that evening. But the caller was Moore, calling from room 727 of the Vista Hotel.

Barry arrived at room 727 at 7:35pm. In one adjointing room were FBI agents; in the other, technical equipment. He had said he didn't want to come to the room, but was eventually persuaded.

"Moore kept steering the conversation to drugs, but she was under orders not to specifically say anything about drugs unless Barry brought it up; Barry was focusing on her body..." (l. 4603).

"A minute left [Barry] said he didn't 'have anything' and asked Moore, 'How about you?' " (l. 4605).

An FBI agent posing as a drug dealer came with some crack cocaine. Barry said he didn't smoke crack, but, after several nerve-wracking minutes for the FBI, Barry changed his mind.

"In the back of his mind, Barry may have thought that he was being watched. But now he was breaking the crack into little pieces by the light of the table lamp. Moore coaxed him and coached him. They jousted and hustled each other for a full three minutes. Finally, he took the pipe and the lighter, put the pipe to his lips, lit the crack, took a long, slow pull, and drew the crack smoke into his lungs" (l. 4640).

At 8:27pm, Barry called for his personal security detail. Before they could arrive, the FBI burst in and arrested Barry.

"An agent told Barry of his right to remain silent and talk to a lawyer."

" 'Yeah,' he said. 'I know all that'."

" 'Bitch set me up,' he said, interrupting the recitation of his rights. He said it again and again like a mantra, as if understanding it could make it go away" (l. 4664).

The media found out almost immediately. One of the first reporters on the scene was Tom Sherwood, co-writer of this book. "But no one outside the hotel was talking" (l. 4675).

Up in room 727, police were talking to Barry.

"Standing now at the edge of the bed, Barry could fit everyman's stereotype, a caricature to fit any prejudice. For the white racist, he was a typical black man, dumb enough to walk into a trip because he couldn't resist sex and drugs. For many African Americans, he was a black leader hounded and investigated, and finally humiliated by a racist white society. For those who could see beyond the caricature, he was the sad civil rights leader who had risen to political power, and by his own devices, squandered his opportunity" (l. 4697).

"A few minutes later, amid the crackling of police radios, [the police] led Barry out the door, down a service elevator, out the hotel's basement door, and into a blue FBI Chevy Suburban with smoked windows for the thirteen-block ride. At the FBI offices, the mayor had his urine taken, his blood sampled, and his hair snipped to check for the levels of cocaine. The operation was so quietly done that even many hotel employees did not realize what had happened. But within the next hour, WRC-TV broadcast news of the arrest. Camera and reporters from the local, national, and international news media all arrived at the Vista to stun the city and country with the shattering news" (l. 4711).

See the unedited 87-minute video of Barry's visit to the Vista Hotel and arrest here.

Cheater's Guide to Dream City continues next week

All posts are cross-posted on Short Articles about Long Meetings.

Full disclosure: I have a commercial relationship with Amazon. I will receive a very small portion of the money people spend after clicking on an Amazon link on this site.

This is a great book and well worth reading in its entirety.

Read the next installment here.