The son of former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry avoided jail time Tuesday but was sentenced to 18 months probation for felony drug possession.
A D.C. Superior Court judge sentenced Marion Christopher Barry, 31, to supervised probation and drug treatment for a May 28 incident in which a vial of liquid PCP and five sandwich bags of marijuana were recovered from a workout room inside Barry’s Southwest apartment.
Barry pleaded guilty to the charges in July.
The maximum penalty for possession of PCP is three years in prison. However, under Barry’s plea agreement, prosecutors said they would seek only a six-month sentence for the arrest.
Police were called to Barry’s apartment in the 4300 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue Southwest for a report of a person yelling and breaking things. When officers knocked on the door, Barry refused to open it, then jumped out a window. When Barry returned to the apartment with a cut foot, he said he was high and tripping when he began smashing things in his apartment, where blood was found. He tested positive for PCP after being arrested, according to court documents.
In court, Barry told the judge he had been “self-medicating.”
Court documents state that Barry admitted to using marijuana daily for “some time” and smoking PCP for about six weeks before his arrest.
He was charged in 2005 with assaulting a police officer. The charges were later dismissed, court records show.
During an FBI sting operation in 1990, Marion Barry, who was in his third term as mayor, was videotaped smoking crack cocaine in a downtown D.C. hotel room.
He served six months in federal prison. Two years later, Mr. Barry was elected to the D.C. Council, and in 1994 he was re-elected as mayor. He was elected to the council again in 2004 and continues to serve as a Ward 8 Democrat.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.