Long Island, NY: The Nassau County Vice Squad arrested two people in Hempstead, Long Island, on 1st degree A Felony Drug Possession charges after a smart police officer turned a normal traffic stop into a big drug raid.
One conviction could mean 25 years in jail for both of them. The Nassau County District Courthouse heard the case of Dondre Bowens-Brennan and Rashaunda Brown yesterday morning. Both of them live at the same home on Manor Avenue in Hempstead.
Asst. DA said Brown was pulled over for a “traffic infraction.” Brown told the judge that she is a mother of twins. The traffic cop said he saw a bag full of cash inside the car when he looked through the window, according to the assistant district attorney. What was in the bag?
He looked into it more and found that the bag had $200,000 in U.S. cash in it. He then asked Brown where she was going with all of this money, the assistant district attorney said. The assistant district attorney told the court that Brown had “conflicting explanations” for where the money came from. According to the arrest warrant papers, it was money from “her hair salon, no it was her boyfriend’s barber shop.”
The assistant district attorney said that backup came with a K-9 dog and that the money smelled “positive for drugs.” The assistant district attorney said, “The $200,000 in the car is what led the police officer to the location,” which was the apartment at 7 Manor St. in Hempstead.
A detective with ties to the Narcotics/Vice Squad and the DEA Task Force said in a signed statement that police went there with a warrant and searched.
Inside, he said, were 5+ Kilos of cocaine, which the assistant district attorney told the court was “an extremely high weight that frankly doesn’t come through this court very often.”
The lawyers did what they could. They said that neither of the defendants had ever been caught before. Lawyers said that their clients’ businesses, family ties, and clean records show that they don’t miss court dates. There was also no proof that their clients knew there were drugs in the apartment or that the drugs belonged to them.
The Assistant DA, on the other hand, insisted on high bail or, better yet, remand, which means they should stay in jail without release. She said that no amount of money would be enough to get Bowens-Brennan and Brown back in court. Additionally, she said that Brown had “funds in the car that tested positive for drugs” that were “found in her house.”
Judge Petrara-Perrin agreed and sent them both back to jail. People from the family who went to the hearing were shocked.
“Two children!” One angry person yelled outside the courtroom door, “She’s got two kids!” In the hallway, their lawyers complained about the remand ruling. Are they going to fight the search of that apartment? Will they fight back when the government takes their $200,000 cash? Was there a good reason to get a search warrant? They will have to show that the money they found was from selling drugs or was meant to buy drugs.
Court records show that no traffic ticket was given, and the cops did not say what “violation” led to the stop. They both said they were not guilty.