Washington – Former Mayor Marion Barry, who once served prison time on a drug charge, may have a new legal problem. There are reports that the government is investigating whether he has filed any federal income-tax returns since 1998.
Barry is not talking.
Citing unnamed sources, several local news outlets reported that Barry, 69, has been the target of an Internal Revenue Service investigation. Barry, a four- term mayor, was elected last November as the councilman representing the city’s working-class Ward 8.
“He will talk when his lawyer says it’s OK,” said Linda Greene, Barry’s chief of staff.
Barry is represented by Frederick Cooke, who has handled other sensitive matters for him in the past, including drug-possession allegations in 2002 that did not result in charges.
Barry served a six-month prison sentence in 1991, stemming from a 1990 FBI sting operation in which he was videotaped in a downtown hotel room smoking crack cocaine.
Filing false income-tax returns is a felony; failure to file can result in a misdemeanor charge.
According to the reports, Cooke has been negotiating a possible deal with federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia that could lead to a plea agreement without jail time.
