Bitch Set Me Up!
Immortal words during an infamous arrest
Thirty-five years ago this month, it was a moment tailor-made for TMZ cameras … but it was years before the paparazzi organization began. Angry at his undercover drug arrest, DC Mayor Marion Barry blurted, “Bitch set me up. I shouldn’t have come up here. Goddamn bitch.” In order to protect him from embarrassment, the FBI quietly escorted Barry through the hotel basement disguised in a wig and sunglasses.
A few days before Christmas 1988, Washington, DC, metropolitan police were responding to a complaint that someone was selling drugs out of a downtown Ramada Inn hotel room. A hotel maid said she was approached by someone asking if she was interested in making a purchase.
The police arrived and approached the room belonging to Charles Lewis, who was suspected of making drug sales. Lewis had long been suspected as a drug dealer. Then the police retreated after they discovered that DC Mayor Marion Barry was in the room with Lewis. The sensitivity of this discovery required notification of the DC police chain-of-command. This matter eventually landed on the desk of US Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, who approved a probe of Barry’s alleged drug use.
Reports of drug use had followed the three-term Democratic mayor over the previous decade. There were reports of him frequenting sketchy locations in the wee hours of the morning. Illegal drug use allegations were part of the rumors. Other legal difficulties plagued the mayor. Eleven city officials, including a top aide and his deputy mayor, had been convicted of financial crimes involving the city. Barry called those convictions an effort to “lynch black people another way.”
Hazel Diane “Rasheeda” Moore had been a girlfriend of Barry for a number of years. She had begun modeling as a teenager in Washington, DC, and then moved to New York. She appeared in several high-fashion magazines. After she returned to DC in 1986, she landed the first of two no-bid contracts with the city government. Sandwiched between the two contracts was some federal prison time.[i]
Moore left DC and moved out West. She was living in Los Angeles when she ran into legal difficulties. She worked out a deal to help federal prosecutors in a sting involving Barry in return for the dropping of charges against her.
After arriving back in Washington, DC, Moore called Barry and suggested the pair get together. Moore was staying at the Vista International Hotel, not far from the White House. Around 7:30 p.m. on January 19, 1990, the fifty-three-year-old Barry arrived at the Vista Hotel in his chauffeur-driven Lincoln Town Car. He was accompanied by an armed bodyguard. Moore called Barry on his car phone and invited him to her room. He left the bodyguard in the lobby and went to room 727. There was another woman in the room. Moore had a traveling companion with her.
Once in the room, Moore introduced the other woman. After some conversation, Barry asked the women if they had any drugs. The friend said she did, and Barry offered to buy some. The friend slipped into the hotel bathroom and returned with some crack cocaine.
Barry filled a pipe with some of the crack, lit it, and then inhaled twice. Three hidden cameras in the room recorded the activity. Moments later, FBI agents burst into the hotel room and handcuffed the mayor. Moore’s friend was actually an undercover FBI agent. Reportedly, a hostage rescue team was standing by on the off chance that Barry’s armed bodyguard attempted to intervene.[ii]
Angry at his arrest, Barry blurted, “Bitch set me up. I shouldn’t have come up here. Goddamn bitch.” In order to protect him from embarrassment, the FBI quietly escorted Barry through the hotel basement disguised in a wig and sunglasses.
Barry was taken to FBI headquarters, where he underwent blood and urine tests, and agents took hair samples. Barry had cocaine in his system, according to the blood and urine tests. The hair samples would be used to determine long-term drug use.
The next morning, US Attorney Jay B. Stephens announced Barry had been charged with one misdemeanor count of cocaine possession. The charge carried a maximum of one year in jail and up to a $100,000 fine.
Barry had his first court appearance on January 20. He was released without having to post bail. US Magistrate Deborah Robinson ordered him to surrender his passport, take weekly drug tests, and phone the federal pretrial services office weekly. After he left the courthouse, he was heckled by critics and cheered by supporters. One man shouted, “You all right, Barry! You ain’t done more damage than the white man do every day!”[iii]
Ironically, at the time Barry was making his court appearance, his friend Charles Lewis was in another courtroom being sentenced. Lewis had pled guilty two months earlier to two counts of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine.
Two days after his arrest, Barry informed friends he would check himself into a clinic to combat his substance abuse problem. The following day, on January 22, Barry entered a South Florida facility for treatment of alcohol abuse.
When his trial began in June, Barry faced more than a dozen felony and misdemeanor charges, ranging from cocaine possession to lying to a federal grand jury. In the midst of his trial, Marion Barry and his wife, Effi, attended a rally led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Barry and Farrakhan embraced on stage and Farrakhan urged him to run for reelection. “I want the mayor to run, Barry, run,” he said.
After a two-month trial, the jury delivered the verdicts. Barry was convicted of one charge and acquitted of a second charge. The jury deadlocked on the remaining twelve charges, leading the judge to declare a mistrial on those counts. After the trial was over, several jurors said they voted for acquittal because they believed some of the evidence against Barry had been fabricated by authorities.
In October 1990, Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry was sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.
Barry chose to not seek reelection as mayor that year, but he began a political comeback in 1992. He was safely elected to the DC City Council, and then was elected as mayor, serving two more terms. He finished out his political career on the city council before passing away in 2014 due to natural causes.
Mark Hyman is a 35-year military veteran and an Emmy award-winning investigative journalist. Follow him on Twitter, Gettr, Parler, and Mastodon.world at @markhyman, and on Truth Social at @markhyman81.
Mark welcomes all news tips and story ideas in the strictest of confidence. You can reach him at markhyman.tv (at) gmail.com.
[i] “Ex-Model Connected with Barry Arrest Was Awarded Contract,” United Press International, January 27, 1990.
[ii] John Cassidy, “Drug-bust Mayor May Escape His Honey Trap,” Sunday (London) Times, January 21, 1990.
[iii] Tracy Thompson and Michael York, “Barry Turns Over Government Power,” Washington Post, January 20, 1990.