The lawyer defending Mayor Marion Barry admitted Thursday that Barry lied to his constituents while using cocaine but said the government used an unfair standard in charging Barry with 14 drug and perjury counts.
"He's being prosecuted because he is the mayor," attorney R. Kenneth Mundy said in closing arguments at the 9-week-old trial. "The government has indicated that if he were a common man, he wouldn't be here for these offenses."On Wednesday, Mundy had told jurors that after they viewed a videotape of Barry smoking crack and heard 10 government witnesses say he used cocaine, he was not going to claim Barry was not an "occasional" cocaine user.
In concluding his statements Thursday, Mundy went a step further, acknowledging that Barry secretly used cocaine while publicly leading an anti-drug campaign and denying drug involvement.
"Despite all the denials, Mr. Barry was an occassional user of cocaine," Mundy said. "(But) I don't want you to divine from this . . . that we are pleading guilty or admitting to any of these charges. There have been occasional uses of drugs."
Mundy contends the government never proved Barry used cocaine on the dates and times charged and asked jurors to acquit him on those grounds.
He also reiterated a theme that Barry was targeted because of his position and treated unfairly by the government, which used an elaborate and expensive sting operation to catch Barry in a misdemeanor count of cocaine possession.
"The government in effect used a sledge hammer to kill a fly," Mundy said, at times nearly screaming.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith Retchin had concluded the prosecution case by accusing Barry of being a traitor in the drug war.
After Mundy's closing arguments, the government was expected to counter with a short rebuttal before U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson instructed the jury and deliberations began.
Barry, 54, is charged with three felony counts of perjury, 10 misdemeanor counts of cocaine possession and a single misdemeanor count of conspiracy to possess cocaine.