BALTIMORE – Actress Felicia “Snoop” Pearson, who played a murderous member of a Baltimore drug gang in the hit HBO series “The Wire,” is shocked to be facing charges of conspiring to sell heroin, her attorney said Friday.

“She’s a little bit dismayed at being in a position that she didn’t place herself in,” lawyer Paul Gardner said.

Pearson, 30, who was ordered held without bail Friday, denies the charges. Her attorney plans to file a writ of habeas corpus and motion for bail review today.

Pearson is one of 64 people charged Thursday in “Operation Usual Suspects,” a joint state-federal prosecution of an alleged east Baltimore drug gang. Of the 38 people arrested, 22, including Pearson, are facing state charges. An indictment charges her with conspiring with two men to distribute heroin and aiding and abetting.

The federal indictment says 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 neighborhoods. The indictment alleges members discussed how those who failed to perform required tasks were dealt with violently.

During Pearson’s hearing Friday, Gardner said, the judge mentioned that the state has audio of Pearson putting in a large amount of money to fund the drug operation. She told him she doesn’t know what prosecutors are talking about because she doesn’t sell drugs, he said.

Advertisement

“The Wire,” which ran from 2002 to 2008, put a spotlight on Baltimore ‘s struggle with poverty and drug violence through stories of the city’s police, drug organizations, schools, politicians and media. Pearson’s character, who shares the nickname “Snoop,” knocks off several people for the fictitious Stanfield drug gang.

Pearson was convicted of second-degree murder in a slaying committed when she was 14. She served five years of an eight-year sentence and was released in 2000.

Conan attends premiere of movie about himself

AUSTIN, Texas – Conan O’Brien attended the premiere Sunday of the documentary that captured the turmoil he faced in the days after his departure from the “Tonight Show.” But he did it grudgingly.

“I personally have trouble watching it because it’s a time in my life that I don’t like to go back to,” O’Brien said from the red carpet, shortly before the South by Southwest film festival premiere of “Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop.” “I’m happy where I am now. I don’t really need to go back to it. But I made a commitment” to director Rodman Flender.

O’Brien allowed camera crews to follow him during the “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television” tour, the 32-city music-and-comedy show he embarked on last year following his unceremonious departure as the host of NBC’s “Tonight Show.”

Advertisement

Gallagher out of hospital

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Gallagher’s manager says the comedian has been released from a Minnesota hospital where he was treated for a minor heart attack.

The 64-year-old Gallagher collapsed in the middle of a show Thursday night at Whiskey Bone’s Roadhouse in Rochester.

Manager Craig Marquado said Gallagher was released Sunday from St. Marys Hospital, which is part of the Mayo Clinic, and was heading home to Los Angeles to see his own doctors.

Gallagher, whose real name is Leo Anthony Gallagher, is best known for smashing watermelons with a sledgehammer.

 


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.