Pride News Canada's Leader In African Canadian & Caribbean News, Views & Lifestyle
By Nelson A. King
CMC US Correspondent
NEW YORK, New York Mar. 27, (CMC) – A Brooklyn, New York judge has agreed to release on bail, a JetBlue flight attendant and former Jamaican beauty queen, charged with leaving 70 pounds of cocaine at the Los Angeles International Airport, but US federal prosecutors immediately blocked the judge’s decision.
Marsha Gay Reynolds appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court, last Friday, supported by family, her minister, and a former New York City Councilman. She faces at least 10 years in prison if convicted.
At the national beauty pageant, held at Hilton Kingston hotel, New Kingston, Jamaica, on Saturday, August 16, in 2008, Marsha-Gay Reynolds (right) was selected as the second runner-up. Also in photo is Miss Jamaica 2008, Brittany Lyons, and first runner-up, Jade Grant (left). Photo by Tyronne Payton.
Reynolds was given US$500,000 bail, but Assistant US Attorney, Alicia Washington, requested a stay, until an appeal could be heard by a US federal magistrate judge in Los Angeles.
Reynolds had surrendered to police at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, on Wednesday.
US federal prosecutors argued, Reynolds abandoned two pieces of luggage, after she was randomly selected for checkpoint screening.
Reynolds, 31, kicked off her shoes and fled the airport, leaving behind the drugs, valued at three million US dollars and, according to media reports, somehow made her way home to Queens, New York, where she surrendered to authorities.
“The defendant’s co-conspirator also has tried to flee to Jamaica, as recently as last night,” Washington told Justice Viktor Pohorelsky.
Reynolds’ unidentified alleged co-conspirator has access to forged travel documents, Washington said.
Reynolds, a former beauty queen in her native Jamaica, is a graduate of New York University, and is studying to be a nurse at Mercy College while working for JetBlue, the Daily News said. She has been suspended from her job.
The judge okayed the bail bond, which will be secured by homes, owned by Reynolds’ mom and the Pentecostal minister. She would be required to stay at her parent’s home in Queens, but could attend school.
“Miss Reynolds is a very good young woman,” said Allan Jennings, a former New York City Councilman, stating, that he was a spokesman for Reynolds’ family.
“She’s done all the right things in life except for this one situation. She may not have been fully aware of what was in the bags,” he added.
