From Jason Cherkis, who is covering today's Marion Barry press conference:

The Ward 8 Councilmember refused to answer reporters' questions about public contracts he awarded and then revoked from his former girlfriend, Donna Watts-Brighthaupt. Instead, this latest standup would be a "single-issue" presser on his arrest by the U.S. Park Police on a stalking charge and the U.S. Attorney throwing out that charge.

Upon leaving, Barry did respond to Washington City Paper's release of the voicemails he left for Watts-Brighthaupt and its cover displaying her quote: "You put me out in Denver 'cause I wouldn't suck your dick," as "trashcan reporting."

Barry began his remarks by thanking God for "intervening in the situation."

The arrest, he says, caused him "great pain....My mother called me the day after the arrest. She's 92 years of age. This could have caused her to have a heart attack or a stroke." The mother of his godson also called him and reported her kids were being teased regarding Barry's stalking charge.

The whole matter could have been avoided had the U.S. Park Police not erroneously arrested him, Barry continued, explaining that he was simply going home on the night of July 4. He says "90 percent of the time" he does go home by way of Anacostia Park because it is "serene. I don't hear gunshots. I don't hear ambulances."

When questioned about public funds appropriated to Watts-Brighthaupt, Barry indicated he would not answer and that this press conference was not the time.

His spokesperson, Natalie Williams, also spoke---essentially re-reading her statement from last night and reiterating that Barry has said from the beginning he never stalked "Miss Watts." Her statement was followed by Barry's lawyer, Fred Cooke, who said the U.S. Attorney's Office made "the right decision. We think this arrest never should have happened."

A reporter then asked Cooke if his client had violated his probation. Cooke responded: "He has not reoffended as the law requires."

Photos By Darrow Montgomery

At a little after 9 p.m., Councilmember Marion Barry spokesperson Natalie Williams began another hastily scheduled press conference in front of the Wilson Building by thanking the U.S. Attorney's Office for dropping the stalking charge against the councilmember. Prosecutors had announced three hours earlier that they would not press on with the stalking case. "Our hearts are full tonight with thanks," Williams said. "We are grateful that the U.S. Attorney's Office has seen fit to not charge Mr. Barry."

Barry had been charged with stalking Donna Watts-Brighthaupt over the July 4 weekend. The arrest had since provoked a series of press conferences and embarrassing disclosures concerning Barry's troubled relationship with Watts-Brighthaupt. The disclosures included bizarre hotel fights and audio tapes showing how obsessed Barry had become with his ex-girlfriend. Yet to be clarified is how Barry came to secure lucrative contract work for Watts-Brighthaupt. 

Williams stated that Barry would answer questions about the the payments tomorrow. She also said that they would be able to provide the documents (contracts, e-mails, etc.) proving that the councilmember had acted properly. She insisted that the nothing Barry had done was illegal. 

After Williams finished reading from her prepared text, she took a few questions from reporters. The first question concerned the audio tapes. 

"This is over," Williams declared. But it wasn't. She went on to argue that the tapes only proved that Barry and Watts-Brighthaupt were in a romantic relationship. 

Williams later added that "Barry is not disappointed" by his behavior heard and referenced on the audio tapes. She refused to address Barry's actions at the Democratic National Convention when he kicked Watts-Brighthaupt out of his hotel room after she claims she refused to give him a blowjob. "They're two adults," she'd only say.

As to how Watts-Brighthaupt got the contract work from Barry's office, Williams isn't quite clear on all the details. She says she doesn't know if the ex-girlfriend even went through any interview process. "I have no idea how that transpired," she admitted. 

Earlier this evening, City Desk interviewed Watts-Brighthaupt on the U.S. Attorney's Office decision. 

*photos by Darrow Montgomery.

"I'm just listening," she said quietly.

She was dressed in jeans, a thin sweater, t-shirt, and dark glasses. In her left hand, she held a drink from McDonald's. In the other, she held a cellphone.

She had found the cameras and the reporters and the microphones in front of the Wilson Building, and felt she needed to take it all in. She stood off to the side, away from the lights, and watched the woman talking into all those microphones.

At a little past 11 p.m. yesterday night, Marion Barry's spokesperson Natalie Williams had assembled the media throng for a quickie press conference to address allegations concerning the councilmember giving lucrative contract work to ex-girlfriend Donna Watts-Brighthaupt.The payments amounted to at least $20,000.

Williams began the presser with an attack on Watts-Brighthaupt. Reading from a typed script, she declared emphatically that the Barry Ex is "unstable" and had sought professional help at one point. This had nothing to do with the circumstances that led to the press conference---Barry's arrest for allegedly stalking Watts-Brighthaupt this past weekend. If she was so unstable, weren't these reasons enough not to hire her for those contract jobs?

Still, Williams kept on her talking point, repeating that word "unstable."

A few feet away, the girl stood still, trying to contain her anger and disappointment. She is 16. She mumbled that she is Watts-Brighthaupt's daughter.

"I'm trying to figure out why she's so unstable," she said of her mother, "when she's sending me off to college next year."

She said she's not surprised by Barry's wave of personal attacks against her mother. She explained: "He's Marion Barry."

There used to be a time not too long ago when Barry meant something important to her family. Although her mom broke things off with the councilmember shortly before his kidney-transplant surgery, she cared for him around-the-clock during his recuperation. "We cooked for him during his recovery," the daughter said. "Cooking and making sure he was comfortable. He had a team of people looking [after] him. Mom was part of the team."

After the press conference ended, she waited for her mom to pick her up. She said that she'll be graduating from high school in a year, that she hoped to attend Hampton University (where Effi Barry once taught). She said she wanted to major in political science.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Natalie Williams, spokesperson for Marion Barry, called a late-night press conference in front of the Wilson Building in order to respond to a Washington Post story today saying that he had given a city contract to alleged stalkee Donna Watts-Brighthaupt. Before the nightly news reporters and a few print reporters, Williams said that due to "continued false allegations," she would reveal the "truth surrounding Mr. Barry's relationship" with Watts-Brighthaupt.

That relationship came into play on Saturday, after Barry was arrested on a misdemeanor stalking charge for allegedly following Watts-Brighthaupt in his car.

Williams started out with the allegation that Watts-Brighthaupt was under the care of a psychiatrist and that she'd been diagnosed with "compulsive behavior disorder and clinical depression."

At that moment, Watts-Brighthaupt, who was standing unnoticed behind the cameras listening to the proceedings, blurted out, "That's not true."

Williams, a bit unsettled, continued with her statement, defending the awarding of a contract to Watts-Brighthaupt, explaining that the purpose was to create an "emerging leaders program." The idea was to "identify, recruit, and develop" youth leaders in Ward 8; the funding was to be $60,000. Williams said the award was proper. Only $20,000 of the award was disbursed.

"For the record, it is not unusual, nor is it illegal, to award contracts to friends or family members who qualify and can provide the services required," said Williams, who went on to say that a bidding process is not required. Williams finished by attacking Watts-Brighthaupt's credibility, calling Saturday's events and her "rambled statements to the media" proof of her instability.

As Watts-Brighthaupt was pulling away in her vehicle, she said this: "Looks like they're scared of something. I must be bad."

Additional reporting by Jason Cherkis
Video courtesy of WRC-TV

LL spoke this evening with Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, the 40-year-old woman whom Marion Barry has been charged with stalking.

She does not support the charge: "He does not stalk," she says. "He does what I allow him to do."

Watts-Brighthaupt says she spent some six months in a relationship with Barry, from August, when she traveled with him to the Democratic National Convention, to February, when the romance ended for reasons she declined to discuss.

But the roots of what happened Saturday night, Watts-Brighthaupt says, go back to last Tuesday, when several councilmembers hosted a Wilson Building screening of CNN's Black in America documentary. She attended with her ex-husband, Delonta Brighthaupt, and their children. But Barry, when he learned less than an hour beforehand that Brighthaupt would be in attendance, drafted a memo asking that he be banned from the building. He was kicked out of the event. According to Watts-Brighthaupt, "It was embarrassing."

The incident upset her, and she says she planned to spend time with Barry yesterday in hopes of getting an apology and moving past the situation. The plan was, she says, to attend a party in Rehoboth Beach, Del.; they had stopped for a late lunch in Annapolis, she says, when she realized a reconciliation wasn't going to be possible. "We weren't settling anything; we were going back and forth," she says. "It was going to be a horrible time."

So she decided to drive them both back to Washington. Barry had left his car at Watts-Brighthaupt's Anacostia home, so they returned there shortly after 8 p.m. But there was a problem, she says---her ex-husband was there, watching the family pets. She didn't want Barry and Brighthaupt to encounter each other, so she dropped Barry off there and headed for Anacostia Park to watch the fireworks that were about to begin.

Barry, apparently, didn't leave---after she left, he entered her house and, finding no one, called Watts-Brighthaupt from her porch and asked her to come back, saying her ex-husband wasn't there. Brighthaupt, as it turns out, had left the house to run an errand and was around the corner. His ex-wife still didn't want the two to meet, but she also didn't want Barry going back inside her house, so she called Brighthaupt, who went home and, barely speaking to Barry, locked the door and left. He then walked to a nearby carryout to meet his ex-wife; they planned to go watch the fireworks in the park, hoping Barry would be gone by the time they returned.

Barry, though, had already left in his BMW. By chance, he stopped at the same traffic light as Watts-Brighthaupt and her ex-husband. He noticed them and began to follow them west on Good Hope Road SE. When they passed Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and dipped under I-295 to enter the park, Barry started flashing his high beams and attempting to pull alongside them on the left. "He swerves a little, and he's about to hit my truck," she says. That's when the Park Police officer pulled Barry over; Watts-Brighthaupt says she did nothing to attract his attention.

When the cop got out of his cruiser, Watts-Brighthaupt got out of her vehicle, as well, she says, to tell the cop, "He's following me, make sure that he gets home." The cop ordered her to get back in her car. After speaking to Barry, the cop came back and asked her if she had been in a relationship with Barry and if her ex-husband, riding shotgun, had ever threatened Barry.

She answered yes to the first query, she says, and no to the second, adding, "I have proof."

The officer then went back to speak to Barry again; at this point, he's arrested, she says: "I don't know what Marion said, but next thing he's arrested....Whatever was said by him was the reason he was arrested."

At no point, says Watts-Brighthaupt, did she accuse Barry of stalking her. "I have no intention to press charges," she says.

LL pressed her on Barry's behavior: "There's a lot of proof showing he tries to keep my attention quite a bit," she says, "but I allow it." LL asked if he'll stop doing things if she asks: "He doesn't, but I don't complain. I just teach him a lesson."

As far as lessons go, Watts-Brighthaupt is getting a lesson in Barry's PR strategy, which seems to be aimed at impeaching her reputation. At a press conference today, spokesperson Natalie Williams referred to Watts-Brighthaupt's "instability"---including health and employment problems---and implied that she had asked for financial help, which Barry had oh-so-generously supplied. Barry, she said, felt "betrayed."

Watts-Brighthaupt says she has cancer, and that she hasn't held steady work in two years, but that she has held consulting contracts since. "I'm not destitute," she says. "I never, ever, ever asked Marion for a goddamn thing," she says. "Anything he gave me was of his own free will." That included, she says, a September trip to Jamaica.

As for the supposed financial support: "If we were dating, whose business is it that there were gifts?" she asks. "You call that 'financial support'? I call 'financial support' paying my condo bill." Barry, she says, would come over, "look through my stuff and take some of my bills....He would take care of it on his own."

Watts-Brighthaupt says she just wants Barry to atone for humiliating her and her ex-husband at the Wilson Building last week---possibly, by making a statement clearing him of any wrongdoing. "My husband had never, ever threatened Marion Barry," she says. "We just wanted him to clear what he said three days ago." She says that since the arrest, she hasn't heard from Barry, his lawyer, or anyone else regarding the arrest. If she doesn't hear something soon, Watts-Brighthaupt says, "too much would come out that he doesn't want."

She says there's no personal animus involved here, even what Williams said today: "I'm not mad at him," she says. "I know how he works."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Watts was identified in an afternoon press conference by Barry spokesperson Natalie Williams; Barry himself did not attend, Williams said, because he was attending services at his church, Temple of Praise. Watts, a former campaign volunteer, has been seen with Barry on numerous occasions, including at April federal court hearing on his ongoing tax troubles. Less than two weeks later, the Washington Post reported that Barry had bought Watts a lavish fur coat at a charity event, outbidding CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Williams described Watts as a "confidante" and "close friend" of Barry's, then went on to describe her as a troubled person whom he had been helping for some time, having "lended his friendship and his support...through her many stages of instability." That includes gifts of money.

"He has assisted her in health challenges. He has assisted her in her search for employment. He has assisted over over a period of time during her financial hardship. He has done for this woman what most of us would only hope that someone would do for us in our time in need," Williams said. "Never did Mr. Barry think that this would come as the payback to him."

"The best word to describe Mr. Barry at this hour," she said, "is betrayed."

Why the smear effort? Said Williams, "[Barry] feels that it is important to put the allegations as well as the charges in its proper context."

A person familiar with the situation who has spoken to Watts says that the incident began shortly before the arrest, when Barry showed up at Watts' home in Anacostia. Earlier in the day, the two had been together, and Barry had asked Watts to accompany him to an event in Rehoboth Beach later in the day. She refused. When Barry arrived at Watts' house, her ex-husband was also there, and when the two attempted to leave through Anacostia Park, Barry pursued them in his BMW, honking and flashing his lights. That's when the Park Police officer pulled the cars over and arrested Barry.

In her account today, Williams said that Barry was not in pursuit of Watts---that, in fact, his was the leading car and that she was following him---and that Barry was "on his way home." She confirmed that the two had been together earlier in the day.

"I believe that Ms. Watts knew exactly what she was doing," Williams said.

Not unexpectedly, Williams made comments critical of the Park Police of behalf of Barry, says that he was "concerned about his treatment" while in custody. In particular, she said, he was not allowed to contact his attorney, Fred Cooke, for some four hours after the arrest. "He does plan to elevate these concerns to the proper authorities," she said. "He's concerned about his relationship with United States Park Police."

Williams says Barry hopes that charges will be dropped.

"Councilmember Barry is no stalker," Williams said. "Instead, he is someone who has lended his hand to assist, which, in the end, has come back to bite him."