WASHINGTON(

AP)—Police said former Washington Mayor Marion Barry has been arrested and charged with stalking a woman.

The United

States Park Police said Barry, a current D. C. Council member, was arrested Saturday in Washington after a woman flagged down an officer and complained Barry was stalking her. Barry was charged with misdemeanor stalking and was released.

Barry’s spokeswoman, Natalie Williams, said Sunday that the accusation was “baseless.”

She said Barry plans to fight the charge and said the accuser is a 40-year-old woman Barry had helped financially.

Barry served four terms as mayor. In his third, he was videotaped in 1990 in a hotel room smoking crack cocaine in an FBI sting. He served six months in prison and in 1994 regained the mayor’s office.