Felicia ‘Snoop’ Pearson Denied Bail In Drug Bust Because Actresses Like Her Know How To Change Looks

Felicia “Snoop” Pearson, the lesbian star of HBO’s The Wire, which cast her after another actor on the show met her at a club and invited her to the set, may never escape her past in Baltimore’s drug game. Picked up as part of a 63-person sweep there, Pearson was slapped with heroin-related and aiding/abetting charges. And in her first court appearance, her star turn was the center of attention: Pearson was denied bail the a judge because, as an actress, she supposedly knows how to change her looks if she wanted to flee.

The Baltimore Sun relays the made-for-television drama.

Here’s one exchanged with Judge John Addison Howard, after a prosecutor accused her of helping to bankroll the suspected drug organization (photo of Pearson at left is by The Sun’s Kim Hairston).

“I have no money,” she told Judge John Addison Howard. “Check my bank account. I have no money.”

When the prosecutor argued that Pearson travels frequently for her job, the 30-year-old actress angrily shot back, “How can I go anywhere? Everybody knows my name.”

Howard answered that is the precise reason for holding her without bail. “You are a good actress. … Everybody knows your name. People change names. They also can …”

Pearson interrupted: “I can’t change my face.”

“Well, you can change your appearance,” the judge responded. “I’ve seen the episodes of The Wire in which you appear. You look very different than you do here today, and I’m not talking about the jumpsuit, I’m talking about your general appearance.”

You work so hard to catch a break in Hollywood, and then you can’t catch a break in the real world. Shouldn’t the decision about bail be made based on Pearson’s priors? Like that second-degree murder conviction at age 14?