Marsha Gay Reynolds, Coke-Smuggling JetBlue Flight Attendant, Appears in Brooklyn Court

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DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN, NY — JetBlue flight attendant and Queens resident Marsha Gay Reynolds, 31, is on house arrest Thursday as she waits for court officials in New York and Los Angeles to agree whether she should be freed on $500,000 bail.

Reynolds made national news on March 18 when she allegedly ditched two suitcases containing 70 pounds of cocaine, worth $3 million, in between security checkpoints at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) — then made a dramatic escape from Terminal 4 by kicking off her Gucci shoes and dashing down an upward-moving escalator.

Because she was a "prescreened, known crewmember" for JetBlue, Reynolds would have normally be allowed through airport security without having to run her bags through an X-ray machine, according to the complaint against her in Los Angeles federal court.

However, as it happened that day, Reynolds was selected for a random, secondary screening, the complaint says.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers later told federal investigators that Reynolds "became nervous, and started looking around" when she was selected.

"Reynolds then retrieved a cell phone from her purse, and made a phone call," the complaint says. "The call took place in a foreign language."

As Reynolds was being escorted to the secondary screening area by Transportation Security Officer Jamie Samuel, the officer told investigators that he kept reminding her to follow him closely, but that she kept falling behind. He said she was talking on her phone the whole time.

When they arrived to the screening area, Reynolds allegedly made her move.

She "dropped her carry-on luggage, removed her shoes and began to run away... down an upward traveling escalator, then out of Terminal 4 running eastbound towards Terminal 5," the complaint says.

Airport security, immediately worried that Reynolds' bags could contain explosives, brought in the bomb dogs.

But when they opened her luggage, the complaint says, they instead found 11 packages of cocaine "individually wrapped in green cellophane" and stuffed inside yellow and white envelopes.

The words "BIG Ranch" were allegedly written across each envelope.

While officers were investigating, Reynolds managed to escape the scene — and even made her way back home to Jamaica, Queens, in the days that followed, according to reports. She turned herself over to authorities Wednesday.

Reynolds appeared in Brooklyn federal court Thursday with "her parents, a church pastor and a church friend," according to the court. (The "church friend" reportedly being Allan Jennings, the former New York City Councilmember accused of sexual harassment.)

U.S. Magistrate Judge Viktor V. Pohorelsky ordered that Reynolds be released on a $500,000 bond Thursday. The bond was "secured by two properties, one owned by the parents and one owned by the church pastor," a court spokeswoman said. If released, Reynolds will be "subject to home confinement and electronic monitoring, with travel restrictions."

The U.S. District Court in the Central District of California now has 24 hours to appeal her release.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles suspect the stunt Reynolds pulled last week was not her first go at smuggling drugs, according to the New York Daily News.

Reynolds lists herself on Facebook as a former student on New York University. She's also a former runner-up for Miss Jamaica, according to the Jamaica Observer.