This is a pretty strange story.
Via Daily Caller:
Rex Petrey, a Marine veteran, former Air Marshal, former Department of Homeland Security agent, and father of two young boys, was released from Baltimore city jail on Wednesday, more than two weeks after he was arrested on misdemeanor charges and inexplicably denied bail by a district judge.
Petrey, who began working in the private security sector after retiring from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March, was arrested April 28 on two handgun charges and another for impersonating an officer.
The handgun charges carry a maximum three-year jail sentence.
But the 50-year-old Petrey is nonviolent felon, and he wasn’t roaming the streets of Baltimore wearing a fake cop uniform.
Instead, he is a law-abiding citizen from Virginia who was contracted to provide security for CNN during its coverage of the Freddie Gray case and riots in Baltimore. It was in the city, outside of Mondawmin Mall, the site of heavy looting, where Petrey was arrested for violating curfew and after agreeing to a police search of his vehicle, which uncovered a Glock Model 19.
After two weeks behind bars, Petrey’s bond was finally set at $25,000 on Wednesday, and and he was released from the notoriously violent Baltimore city jail.
But his case raises questions over why he was arrested in the first place and why he was denied the ability to post bail for such an extended period of time.
The Daily Caller is reporting the story only now that Petrey has been released from jail given his status as a former federal agent.
Though Petrey qualified for a Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act (LEOSA) card — which grants officers the right to carry firearms even where normally prohibited — he did not have the card on him when police questioned him April 28. And because Maryland does not recognize legal gun permits from other states through what is known as concealed carry reciprocity, Petrey was charged with illegal firearms possession.