Allan Lengel

D.C. Marion Barry, the guy who got busted years ago for smoking crack, the guy who got busted for failing to pay taxes, the guy who has been one great big embarrassment to the District of Columbia, has now been stripped of his committee chairmanship on the D.C. Council and faces the prospect of yet another federal investigation.

The D.C. Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to censure and strip the chairmanship from the never-a-dull moment politician as a result of an independent report by attorney Robert S. Bennett, which found that Barry landed his ex-girlfriend Donna Watts-Brighthaupt a $15,000 personal-services contract and then took a cut of the contract himself.

Ex-D.C. Mayor Marion Barry

The council also referred the report to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Washington Post reported.

Marion Barry, former mayor, former community activist, has done some good things for D.C. But he has also done plenty harm. It’s not good when you’re the punchline for comedian Chris Rock. It’s not good when the masses lose faith in you as a leader.

Taxpayers over the years have paid for the expensive federal investigation into his wrongdoing — including him not paying taxes.

He has been an endless source of fodder and amusement for the media. But it’s time to put it to an end.

It’s time for him to step down from the city council — or be forced off.  He’s not a terrible guy. He’s just a terrible representative of the people.

It really is time to say goodbye.

Judge Richard Posner/ harvard photo

Two federal Court of Appeals judges from Chicago took the stand Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court, saying they felt threatened by the rantings of Internet radio shock jock Hal Turner, the New York Daily News reported.

Federal Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer took the stand and Judge Frank Easterbrook was scheduled to testify in the afternoon. Turner is being retried on charges that he threatened the lives of the judges. A mistrial was declared in the first trial after the jury deadlocked.

Turner wrote in his blog that the judges deserved to die for upholding a gun ban. He also said the judges “didn’t get the hint” after the husband and mother of Chicago Federal Judge Joan Lefkow were murdered, the Daily News reported.

“It’s obviously a threat,” Posner said, according to the Daily News. “It sounds like another murder is needed…namely of me.”

For Full Story

By Allan Lengel

When it comes to a federal juror stepping over the line, Maximino Gonzalez rates right up there with the best of them.

Maximino, 36, of Palmview, Tex., who served on a jury in 2008, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Houston on Monday to jury tampering  after he met with defendants during trial and tried to get them acquitted, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The trial ended in a mistrial.

He has been in custody since his arrest in January. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Gonzalez was on a jury in November 2008. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that during the trial Gonzalez contacted an unindicted drug dealer implicated by testimony in the trial.

He also contacted two defendants in the trial, brothers Guadalupe and Abraham Hernandez, “to discuss the trial testimony”, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

By Allan Lengel

If you’re going to make up a story and possibly go to prison for it, it might as well be a grand one.

Enter Sylvia Mardini. The 24-year-old Los Angeles woman who pretended she had been kidnapped across state lines last summer, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Los Angeles  to lying to the FBI. She faces up to five years in prison at sentencing on May 10.

Mardini vanished last August 21 and started sending text messages to her mother saying she had been kidnapped at gunpoint and she was in Utah, authorities said.

The hoax got the attention of the media. The FBI and Los Angeles Police coordinated a multi-state search.

Colorado State Patrol found her at a gas station alone in Routt County, Colo. After she returned to Los Angeles, she told FBI agents of the kidnapping story.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• Sen. Grassley Questions Impartiality of Ex-U.S. Atty. in IG Firing Matter (ABC News)
• Suspect in Elizabeth Smart Case Deemed Competent (AP)
• NY Lawsuit Seeks Damages from Iran For Terrorism Acts (AP)
• Denver Man Accused of Sending White Powder Letters (AP)
• 2 Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide at Va. Daycare (AP)
• Prospective Juror Sues Fed Judge Over Intrusive Questions (Courthouse News Service)

By Allan Lengel

A 25-year-old Maryland drug dealer, who was known to wear a radio frequency device to detect undercover law enforcement with recording devices, was sentenced in Baltimore on Monday to 24 years and 4 months in prison for witness tampering in the death of a fellow drug dealer.

U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sentenced Steven Leroy Stone, age 25, of Frederick, Md., on charges of conspiracy to commit witness tampering and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime and a crime of violence resulting in death, in connection with the murder of David Lee, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The plea agreement said that Stone in 2004 and 2005 worked with Lee and others to distribute cocaine, marijuana and ectasy in the Frederick, Md. area.  The gang became known as “B-6”, which stood for “the bottom of Sixth Street”, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

In 2005, Stone and others started to suspect that Lee was snitching on them and they learned that he had received subpoenas to testify before a grand jury.