On June 6, a 24-year-old woman named Jade Kala Johnson was arrested in Baltimore for suspected drug dealing charges as well as a gun crime. Since we’re talking about Charm City, that story would barely be worthy of mention in the local papers in most cases since such offenses take place on a daily or even hourly basis. What made this arrest more noteworthy however is the fact that Ms. Johnson is a top aide to City Council President Nick Mosby. He and his crime-fighting wife, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, basically run Baltimore. Seeing one of his top aides take a charge like this certainly seems out of character to say the least. And for once, the suspect wasn’t immediately let off with a slap on the wrist. She wasn’t released from jail until Friday. (Baltimore Sun)
An assistant for Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby was arrested on gun and marijuana distribution charges in Baltimore County earlier this month, and released from jail Friday, court records show.
Jade Kala Johnson, 24, has been charged with having a loaded handgun in a vehicle, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm while distributing drugs, among several other offenses.
She was released from jail Friday after being held without bond since her arrest June 6. She is being represented by the prominent Baltimore defense attorney Warren Brown.
Johnson allegedly had five ounces of marijuana packaged up for sale to individual buyers in her vehicle and the police could smell it when they pulled her over for a traffic violation and searched the car. There was also a digital scale, indicative of drug distribution. In a pleasant twist, Johnson apparently is the registered, legal owner of the 9mm handgun that was found in the center console of her vehicle. But she did not have a permit to carry the firearm in a concealed fashion like that. Also, she had two 16-round magazines with her, one in the handgun and the other in the console. Those extended-round magazines are illegal in Maryland.
As it turns out, however, Johnson had a passenger in her car. Bernard Beasley Jr. was in the car with her and she was allegedly just “giving him a ride” and it was his marijuana. He’s facing all the same charges as Johnson, so that’s her explanation of how she came to be pulled over with drugs in the vehicle.
Ms. Johnson is reportedly a college graduate who has no previous criminal convictions. As such, neither the judge nor the prosecutor had any objections to releasing her on her own recognizance. And yet she somehow remained sitting in jail for well over a week before her case was processed.
The next twist in the story comes with Johnson’s employment status. When filling out a form ahead of her court appearance, she listed her employer as the Baltimore City Council. She said she had been working there for ten months and earned a salary of $50,000. But the Baltimore Sun could find no listing under that name for any employee in the public salary databases.
This is all simply bizarre. If the drugs and the scale belong to Beasley and he was the only one actually dealing drugs, that might suggest she’ll be off the hook. But if that’s the case, why did she have the 9mm and the extra extended magazines in the car with them? And does she really work for Nick Mosby or not? He’s not denying it yet (in fact he’s not even commenting), but if she really does work for him, how is her employment status not in the public records? Is she working “off the books” in some fashion?
Fortunately for Johnson, Nick Mosby’s wife has decriminalized or simply refused to prosecute a number of crimes, including many drug offenses. But that does not apply to the city and state gun laws. That’s a fairly serious charge even for a first offense. Will the city wind up simply letting Johnson walk with time served and perhaps a bit of probation or public service? Particularly given her close connections to the highest levels of Baltimore’s government, surely people would erupt with cries of favoritism. But don’t be surprised if it happens. Given her first-time offender status, a sympathetic judge and prosecutor could easily make that happen.
But there still has to be more to this story. The Mosbys are already in plenty of legal trouble of their own, but to have someone so close to the boss wind up being arrested for this sort of activity is simply bizarre.
