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 Fox News 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.
Rex Petrey’s LEOSA card
Since Petrey’s arrest, six Baltimore police officers charged with 26 felonies in the Gray case were arrested and released after posting bail. Half of the 200 rioters who were arrested were released from jail because of paperwork errors.
Even Allen Bullock, the 18-year-old who was photographed smashing up a police car while rioting, posted a $500,000 bail.
Though a hefty sum, he at least had an option not available to Petrey until Wednesday.
Had Petrey not been granted bail, he would have had to sit in jail until his May 28 trial.
Petrey was working security with his gun at another venue earlier on the day of his arrest. A security professional who serves as a middleman for security contractors contacted Petrey about working in Baltimore, which the day before saw massive rioting, looting, and arson. After dinner, Petrey headed to meet the rest of the Virginia Rapid Emergency Deployment (RED) Team at a designated rally spot.
According to a sworn statement from the security professional, Petrey was to serve as Virginia RED Team leader. According to the statement, a request for personnel was sent to approximately 30 others with directions to meet at the rally point. Personnel were to bring typical security gear — ballistic vests, a backpack, and binoculars. Guns were allowed but listed as optional, according to the statement.
At the meet-up, Petrey was supposed to sign paperwork to make the short-term $40-per-hour gig official and then head to his designated post. But he was unable to find the other Virginia RED Team members — so he parked his black Jeep near Mondawmin Mall.
Petrey approached officers standing near the looted mall and asked for help. When he did, he was told he was in violation of the city’s 10 p.m. curfew, which had been put in place the night before by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
Petrey tried to explain his situation during questioning. According to a probable cause statement obtained by TheDC, he pulled out a credential holder and security badge and showed it to officers. He also had a voided ICE identification card marked “void.”
“As he showed me his badge, he flipped open the cover to reveal law enforcement credentials for the Department of Homeland Security,” reads the probable cause statement, issued by Officer Christian Schaeffer. “He quickly placed his hand over those credentials as if attempting to conceal them.”
Petrey had worked in various sub-agencies within the Department of Homeland Security since 2001. He worked as a Federal Air Marshall in the aftermath of 9/11 and also worked with U.S. Customs and Immigration Services and ICE. Before his stint working for the federal government, Petrey worked private security throughout most of the 1990s. Prior to that, he served in the U.S. Marines for nearly nine years.
The probable cause report does not go into detail about what aspect of Petrey’s carrying that voided ID or allegedly shielding it with his hand warranted the impersonating an officer charge. The report does not state that Petrey claimed he is currently in law enforcement.
A spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department would not speak on the record about the case.
Being out past curfew and allegedly impersonating an officer opened Petrey up to further questioning and to a physical search.
During the search, officers found a “folding pocket knife” with a “manual blade” in the right pocket of Petrey’s cargo pants, according to the probable cause report. If described accurately, it is unclear if Petrey’s knife is illegal. Baltimore’s city code prohibits “spring-action” knives, which happens to be the type that Freddie Gray had on him during his April 12 arrest.
Petrey’s police interrogation for violating curfew may have been illegal as well. The Maryland State Defender’s Office filed a motion in Baltimore on Monday asserting that Rawlings-Blake did not have the authority to impose a curfew. That power resides with the governor, a Baltimore deputy public defender argued in the motion.
The state’s attorney announced Monday that it was dropping charges against those arrested only for curfew violation.
After finding the knife, officers asked Petrey if they could search his vehicle.
He agreed, but remembered only after doing so that he had the loaded Glock in his backpack. He told officers about the gun. They recovered it and charged Petrey with illegal possession of a firearm because Maryland does not allow non-residents to carry concealed weapons.
Petrey could have proved that he was allowed to carry a gun had he been carrying his LEOSA card. According to a copy of Petrey’s LEOSA card shared with TheDC, Petrey qualified for LEOSA on April 15. But he did not have a physical copy of it on him at the time.
But what could have been cleared up with a few phone calls or requests for more documentation turned into a two-week nightmare for Petrey and his family.
Thirty hours after being jailed, Petrey’s provisionary bond was set by a court commissioner at $200,000. Though steep, that would have at least allowed Petrey the option to bail out of jail.
But several days after his arrest, on Friday, May 1, Judge Waxman, who formerly served as a member of Maryland’s Bail System Task Force, inexplicably revoked Petrey’s bond altogether. She referenced threats to public safety amid the riots in the city.
A spokeswoman for the Maryland District Court confirmed that Waxman revoked Petrey’s bond. “Mr. Petrey had an initial appearance where bail was set at $200,000; then upon bail review, he was held without bond,” Terri Charles told TheDC.
After Petrey’s attorney filed a motion for another bail review this week, his bond was set at $25,000 on Wednesday.
Petrey’s case bears some resemblance to that of Shaneen Allen, a single mother from Pennsylvania who was arrested in New Jersey in Oct. 2013. Allen faced up to 11 years in prison after she was arrested in possession of a loaded firearm in her vehicle.
Allen, who had a concealed carry license for Pennsylvania, was unaware that New Jersey does not have concealed carry reciprocity laws.
After being pulled over for an illegal lane change, Allen, like Petrey, agreed to let a trooper search her car. She was arrested on the gun possession charge and was kept in jail for 46 days before posting $50,000 bail. After national outrage, the prosecutor handling Allen’s case decided to drop the charges. Gov. Chris Christie pardoned her altogether last month.
This article initially stated that Petrey was contacted to work for CNN. He was actually hired to work for Fox News.