An Atlantic City woman on release in an attempted murder case was ordered held after incurring several drug charges in two towns.
Rashanah Camper, 29, was accused of using her cancer to stay out of jail, while she was pedaling deadly drugs on the streets of Pleasantville and Atlantic City, during a detention hearing last week.
"The defendant has used her cancer treatment to circumvent the criminal justice system," Assistant Prosecutor Deirdre Laws told the judge.
She allegedly enlisted a 16-year-old boy to shoot the unnamed victim as payback for being stabbed months earlier. The teen previously pleaded guilty.
Camper had been a fugitive for months when she was arrested in Philadelphia on Sept. 11, 2019,
She was released in March of 2021, to receive chemotherapy treatments.
"It’s important to note the defendant was originally found to be a danger to society based on the attempted murder, and was released during COVID due to her cancer condition," Laws told the judge.
The assistant prosecutor alleged that in every virtual court appearance since, Camper appeared on Zoom from bed "as if she was sick."
But Camper was really continuing criminal activity, according to the charges.
She faces three separate drug and money-laundering cases since Oct. 27, two including one out of Atlantic City in January.
She appeared for a virtual court hearing a year ago to put her attempted murder case on the trial list. That date came and went.
Camper was arrested in the drug cases March 14. At that time, she allegedly refused to be fingerprinted, resulting in more charges, including obstruction.
"May I speak to my lawyer privately?" she asked the judge during her detention hearing, where she appeared via video from the Atlantic County Justice Facility.
Camper appeared to be sitting in a wheelchair.
"When I got picked up I was asked questions and somebody wanted to see me so I wanted to deal with that," she told the judge.
The detention hearing resumed after she spoke briefly with her public defender off the public livestream.
But the livestream was interrupted again after attorney Lauren Musarra indicated that her arguments against detention would include "sensitive information that I know Miss Camper prefer not be put out in the public sphere."
She asked if they "could potentially go off of live stream for just a few moments to discuss those issues."
Judge Nancy Ridgway granted the request, but the livestream was not made public again until Camper's appearance as completed.
BreakingAC did confirm that she was held, despite the public safety assessment — which helps determine whether a person is held under bail reform — recommending she be released with reporting to the court twice a month.
