'Wire' Actress Getting New Attorney In Drug Case

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Actress Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, who played a Baltimore drug gang assassin in HBO's "The Wire" series, is getting a new lawyer as she fights charges of conspiring to sell heroin.

Benjamin C. Sutley said Tuesday that he will take over the case from entertainment attorney Paul W. Gardner.

A hearing on a writ of habeas corpus Gardner filed challenging Pearson's no-bail status is scheduled for next week, but Sutley said he will likely withdraw it. He says he has spoken to Pearson several times, but he needs to learn more about the case.

Pearson is one of 64 people charged this month in "Operation Usual Suspects," a state-federal prosecution of an alleged East Baltimore drug gang. She is charged in an indictment with conspiring with two men to distribute heroin.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)