Felicia âSnoopâ Pearson, the American actress who was catapulted from a harsh street life to fame by the series The Wire, has pleaded guilty to having joined a shady ensemble that was caught distributing heroin and marijuana on the streets of Baltimore. Pearson, 31, who shares her nickname with the drug-gang assassin she portrayed on the successful police drama examining the criminal underworld in Baltimore, cut a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to association with a conspiracy that was broken open with the arrest of 64 people in March. Under the agreement, Pearson was sentenced to seven years in prison with all that time suspended except for the five months already served, most of it at her own home under electronic monitoring. She is subject to three years of supervised probation, but Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill said she would be allowed to travel out of state for professional reasons, allowing her to try to relaunch her acting career. The dismay in March when Pearson was among those arrested was profound for her fans and former colleagues on The Wire because of her own history of escaping crime, including a conviction of second-degree murder, to shine in her new life of acting. At the time, David Simon, the creator of The Wire, expressed his distress in email correspondence with Guy Adams, The Independentâs Los Angeles correspondent. She âhas, from her earliest moments, had one of the hardest lives imaginable,â he said. âWhatever good fortune came from her role in The Wire seems, in retrospect, limited to that project. She worked hard as an actor and was entirely professional, but the entertainment industry as a whole does not offer a great many roles for those who can portray people from the other America. There are, in fact, relatively few stories told about the other America.â As she emerged from court, Pearson sought to play down the implications of her guilty plea, entered the day before trial was due to begin. While her lawyer, Benjamin Sutley, told reporters, âI canât say she would have been found not guilty,â she interrupted, saying: âI would have been found not guilty.â The conspiracy was cracked after a drug inquiry that itself relied heavily on wiretaps to assemble evidence, called Operation Usual Suspects. Prosecutors said Pearson allowed money and drugs to be stored in her apartment. Simon said that the notion that Pearson might be judged by her peers was flawed because there were two Americas, âpolitically and economically distinctâ, as the streets of Baltimore illustrate. âI, for one, do not qualify as a peer to Felicia Pearson,â he said. âThe opportunities and experiences of her life do not correspond in any way with my own, and her America is different from my own.â
Thanks for reminding me of that Mick. Read about it months ago but has forgotten to add it to my IMDb watchlist.
Interesting piece about urban renewal and the themese touched on in Show Me A Hero
Nice one pal - must keep an eye out for that show.
Started rewatching The Wire again. Nearly finished season 2. Frank Sobotka is probably the greatest character in The Wire. Utterly immense performance
I watched season two a couple of months back⌠unreal tv.
+1 to all the love for Season 2. Think itâs my favourite season.
Ziggy isnât half as annoying the second time you watch it. Probably because you get used to him
Must be one of the most likeable âbad guysâ of all time.
Bad how?
As in, the guy the good guys are trying to catch.
Good how?
How now?
Season 2 is the best. That scene when they are eating the shell fish and mcnulty proves the bodies jumped in at the city bridge is unbelievable.