Barry spokeswoman confirms contract for girlfriend
WASHINGTON -- Marion Barry, the colorful former D.C. mayor and current city council member, awarded a $60,000 contract to a girlfriend because she was experiencing financial difficulties, his spokeswoman said.
It was the latest twist in a saga that began when the 73-year-old Barry was arrested on charges of stalking her over the weekend.
The charges were dropped today by federal prosecutors, who said they'd reviewed the evidence and decided not to proceed.
Barry spokeswoman Natalie Williams called a news conference late Tuesday night to respond to a Washington Post report about the contract, which she said was awarded to Donna Watts-Brighthaupt in September. She said Barry followed proper procedures in awarding the contract for a leadership development project.
"The contract was awarded to Ms. Watts because she met the criteria for the job and the qualifications for that job. This was Council Member Barry's response to Ms. Watts' continuous notification to him about her financial plight," Williams said, adding that Watts-Brighthaupt was about to lose her home and car. She said Barry was motivated out of concern for Watts-Brighthaupt's children.
The contract was worth $60,000, to be disbursed in increments of $5,000 a month.
Barry was arrested Saturday by U.S. Park Police and charged with stalking Watts-Brighthaupt. His lawyer has said the two were on their way to Rehoboth Beach, Del., on Saturday for an Independence Day party when they stopped for a meal in Annapolis, Md. The lawyer said Watts-Brighthaupt then changed her mind about the trip, and they returned to Washington.
Later that day, Barry was driving behind another car carrying Watts-Brighthaupt and her ex-husband before he was pulled over by park police. Barry's lawyer Frederick Cooke has said he was simply on his way home from Watts-Brighthaupt's house.
Barry is still married to Cora Masters Barry but the two have been separated for years.
Barry served four terms as Washington's mayor. In his third, he was videotaped in 1990 in a hotel room smoking crack cocaine in an FBI sting. He served six months in prison and in 1994 regained the mayor's office.
Reader Reactions
Did D.C. re-elect Barry after his publicized cocaine binge, or did he otherwise regain the mayorship? Is this what they mean when they say ‘taxation without representation?‘ If so, I’d be moving out of DC. Bad enough as it is, its one thing to have government forced upon you that you didn’t approve, but its another to have a crack-head mayor returned to office without the support of the taxpayers. It’s just all bad. All bad.
Give 80% of DC back to Maryland and repeal the Home Rule Act of 1973.
The remaining District should be a small area from the White House over to the Capitol/Supreme Court. That’s all that is needed.
Things would be so much better.
This has so many angles that ooze sleaze, it’s hard to even start.
So let’s leave it at this - if the City is well on its way since going to the elected Mayor to being the Little DC, is this what we really wanted?
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