Lawyer Held After Allegedly Dropping Illegal Crack Cocaine Pipe in Wrong Place--a Courthouse Hallway

Chalk this up as the easiest arrest of the week: A lawyer was taken into custody Tuesday after she allegedly dropped a crack cocaine pipe in a courthouse corridor crowded with police officers.

Detective Richard Womack, a plainclothes narcotics officer, was waiting to testify on another matter at the Criminal Courts Building in Downtown Los Angeles when he spotted the illegal pipe hit the floor. He and his colleagues arrested Nancy Phillips Sperry, 38, who was in court to defend a client on drug charges.

One of the onlooking officers said he could not understand why anyone would bring a crack pipe to court. “But then again, they do say crack eats your brain cells,” the officer said.

At the time of the incident, Sperry was on recess from a Municipal Court case in which she was representing Randy Small, 23, who is accused of having 14 grams of crack.

It was unclear what would happen to Small’s case after Sperry was booked on one count of having illegal narcotics paraphernalia, a misdemeanor. The bail was set at $250 for that charge, but she also was held on an outstanding traffic warrant alleging that she failed to show up in court after driving with a suspended license.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carla Arranaga, who is prosecuting Small, said Sperry had “appeared to be somewhat disorganized, anxious and fidgety” before her arrest.

Three friends of Small’s who had come to court to support him were shocked when officers surrounded the lawyer and led her away.

“I was supposed to give her $50 yesterday” as a payment toward Small’s legal bill, said one of the friends, Tamika Manning. “I would have been really angry if I had given her my money.”