Wire Actress Pleads Guilty In Drug Conspiracy Case
A case of life imitating art gone wrong as HBO’s “The Wire’s” Felicia “Snoop” Pearson plead guilty today to conspiring to distribute heroin.
Like her hit TV series, the 31-year-old Pearson was caught by a wiretap in a joint federal-state drug probe of an alleged drug gang.
“Snoop” plead guilty a day before her trial was set to begin and Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill accepted the plea, suspending a seven-year sentence with credit for time served and ordering three years of supervised probation with provisions for out-of-state travel for work.
Pearson can now move on with her acting career.
According to The AP, Pearson was one of 64 people charged in March in “Operation Usual Suspects.”
The federal indictment states that since 2008, members of the conspiracy bought heroin from New York and marijuana from California and sold the drugs on the streets of Baltimore. As part of the conspiracy, the indictment alleges, members discussed how those who failed to perform required tasks were dealt with violently.
Pearson was caught on a wiretap conspiring with Shawn Johnson and Jeff Gibbs, who bought heroin in bulk from New York and distributed the drugs in Baltimore, according to a statement of charges read aloud in court by prosecutor Rebecca Finn. Johnson paid Pearson to store drugs and money, including drug proceeds, at her apartment in the city, Finn said.
When another member of the alleged conspiracy was kidnapped by rival dealers, Johnson told him to go to Pearson’s apartment to get money pay a ransom, Finn said. Police interrupted the abduction outside Pearson’s apartment and found heroin in the abducted man’s car, she said. Informants also told investigators that Pearson occasionally sold heroin for Johnson, Finn said.
Some of the people involved in the wider case helped take care of Pearson when she was a teen, but she has now “learned a valuable lesson about how some loyalties you keep and others drag you down,” Sutley said.
Pearson said she knows everyone in Baltimore. Asked how she’ll avoid falling into the same situation in the future, Pearson said, “I’m moving to L.A.”