It's appears it will be another slap on the hand for "Mayor for Life."
D.C. Council member and former mayor Marion Barry will most likely not face more jail time for charges that he did not pay his income taxes.
Barry is most likely looking at an extension of his probation for a year or two.
His probation officer testified Thursday that Barry is current on tax payments to D.C. and the Feds, but is late in filing one report in February.
Prosecutors then recommended the extension of his probation for another two years and home detention for 30 days. A judge will make an official written ruling on the sentence, but that would not be made Thursday.
Federal prosecutors filed court documents last month saying Barry hadn't paid D.C. back taxes since July, the City Paper reported. This was in addition to failing to file his federal taxes on time in eight of nine years, even after being slapped on the hand for his delinquency.
Barry's federal back taxes are taken out of his paycheck, but his wages are not garnished to pay his District debt, according to his attorney, Fred Cooke. There was a dispute with D.C. tax officials about how much Barry would pay, Cooke said.
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Barry was given three years of probation in 2006 after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges for failing to file his tax returns from 1999 to 2004. Two years ago, prosecutors sought to have that probation revoked after Barry failed to file his 2005 taxes on time. A judge refused, saying prosecutors didn't prove Barry willfully or intentionally failed to file on time.
Then, Barry didn't file his 2007 taxes until last month. He blamed that on a bum kidney rather than some pathological aversion to this particular civic duty. According to court papers, Barry did owe federal and District income taxes for 2007.
Kidney failure is the culprit again. Everything's OK with his new kidney, but hospitalization for that transplant interfered with Barry's ability to pay after he worked out a new payment plan with the District, Cooke said.
