JetBlue Flight Attendant Marsha Reynolds Fails Again in Bail Bid on Cocaine-Possession Charge
Marsha Reynolds will be returned from New York to California for April hearing.
— -- The JetBlue flight attendant accused of attempting to smuggle nearly 70 pounds of cocaine through Los Angeles International Airport will remain in custody in a New York jail.
The judge overseeing the case, Viktor V. Pohorelsky, had originally granted 31-year-old Marsha Reynolds $500,000 bail during a hearing in a Brooklyn court Thursday, a decision he made in large part because she surrendered herself, he said.
But a judge in Los Angeles, from where she fled to New York, overturned the decision late Thursday and Reynolds’ attorneys failed today in New York federal court to have the L.A. decision overturned. So she will remain in police custody until April 7, when she will appear in front of a California court.
It is unclear when she will be transported to California by U.S. Marshals.
Reynolds was charged with possession with the intent to distribute cocaine after she allegedly dropped a suitcase full of the drugs at an airport security checkpoint at LAX airport on March 18, before fleeing. She turned herself into authorities in New York Wednesday.
She was not flying in the capacity of a flight attendant at the time of the incident, according to JetBlue. Surveillance footage show images of Reynolds dressed in plain clothes.
If convicted, Reynolds could face 10 years to life in prison.
A family spokesman, Allan Jennings, said after Thursday's bail hearing that Reynolds maintains she did not know what was inside the bag when she was at the airport.
Reynolds is a former beauty pageant contestant and has been a New York-based JetBlue employee for six years. She is also a full-time nursing student.
Her New York lawyer, Brad Mazarin, told ABC News she is in "high spirits," calling her a "very nice young lady." But the case is now out of his hands, he said.
It is unclear whether Reynolds has obtained a lawyer in California.
JetBlue officials initially issued a statement saying, "We are cooperating with authorities on their investigation."
They were not informed of the incident until the next day.
