Between the Lines: Ethics Report on Marion Barry - Money, Power and Sex

The striking 6-foot-plus figure ran Washington in the city's infancy and, like many frontier sheriffs, Barry had a Wild West style of leadership. He was the second person to sit in D.C.'s version of city hall after the 10-square-mile municipality wrested a bit of independence from congressional control to enjoy Home Rule status in 1973.

Barry, mayor from 1979-1991 and again from 1995-1999, was a colorful character for headline writers. The charismatic mayor had a taste for wine, women and street-level cocaine, which eventually led to his conviction and a six-month sentence for possession and use of an illegal substance. The Washington City Paper's original Loose Lips columnist dubbed him mayor-for-life because Barry was so skilled at rallying political support.

He regained his seat after serving time. Eventually demoted by the electorate to his current post, news about the 70-plus former civil rights advocate more recently has been related to his poor health and a dispute with the federal government over unpaid taxes.

Last fall, after a rather spectacular public scene involving lady friend Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, she accused Barry of procuring a city contract for her and collecting a portion of the money for himself. D.C. lawyer Robert Bennett conducted an ethics investigation for the Council, and this week he released the results, which accuse the politician of corruption. The executive summary can be read below. (The full report is here.) Barry denied the charges.

According to the report, "Mr. Barry arranged for a personal services contract to be awarded to Ms. Watts-Brighthaupt, with whom he had a sexual and close personal relationship." She was paid $15,000.
Her contract proposal was for a "program entitled Emerging Leaders of Ward Eight," which was rejected by the Council Secretary's office as "insufficiently detailed." Because it was "political in nature" and did not relate to "Mr. Barry's Council functions" it was deemed "not appropriate for funding," the report said. Nevertheless, despite the councilman's beefing up of her proposal, she eventually provided the same rejected project. The report said "significant portions" of her work "were copied without attribution" from "publicly available materials located on the Internet."

Prior to the contract's award, Barry, "knowing she was in financial distress," paid his friend's "mortgage, utility and car repair bills and bought other items for her that she believed to be gifts including jewelry and a coat." She told Bennett's investigators that when Barry then "personally delivered a contract payment check to her" he "insisted that they go directly to the bank" and that she "pay a portion of the funds over to him, claiming that the payments he made on her behalf were loans, not gifts."

Barry, in his testimony, denied that he required her to "cash the checks and repay him from the proceeds," but "acknowledged that he insisted" she "repay the money he believed she owed him." He said he "might have gone with her to the bank on one or two occasions."