WASHPO: Federal Prosecutors Ask Judge to Jail Marion Barry

By Del Quentin Wilber

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 9, 2009; 3:27 PM

To view the goverment's motion to revoke Marion Barry's probation click HERE.

Federal prosecutors today asked a federal judge to send D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) to jail for not filing his most recent tax returns.
Prosecutors alleged that Barry, by not filing his 2007 federal and D.C. tax returns, had violated the terms of his probation for previous tax offenses. Barry, 72, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to not filing tax returns from 1999 through 2004, has not filed such documents on time for eight of the last nine years, prosecutors said.
"The defendant's conduct regarding tax year 2007 is indefensible," wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Zeno in a motion filed in U.S. District Court this afternoon. "It is not acceptable for any citizen to shirk a basic civil duty, let alone a former mayor and current city councilman who has been responsible in the past and continues to be responsible for spending public funds collected from District of Columbia taxpayers."
If the judge does not want to send Barry to jail, prosecutors wrote that she should hold a hearing in which Barry can explain his conduct. Prosecutors might then request a two-year extension of the councilmember's probation, they wrote.
It is the second time Barry has run into trouble with his tax case. In 2005, the former mayor pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses and admitted he did not pay taxes on most of the $500,000 he earned during from 1999 through 2004.
In March 2006, Barry was sentenced to three years probation by U.S. magistrate judge Deborah Robinson.
Within a year, prosecutors were asking Robinson to revoke Barry's probation and send him to jail because he had failed to file his 2005 returns. But Robinson denied the request, saying prosecutors hadn't proven that Barry had willfully or intentionally not filed the returns. Barry's probation expires next month.
Barry's attorney, Frederick D. Cooke Jr., did not return a phone message left at his office this afternoon.
In court papers, prosecutors noted Barry sought an extension to file his taxes until October as he was seeking permission to leave the country for a Caribbean vacation in September. In November, Barry "promised" the probation office that he would file his taxes within two weeks, Zeno wrote.
In an interview last month, Barry said: "As with any American citizen, my tax status is a matter between the IRS and the taxpayer and not The Washington Post."