PRECIOUS” director Lee Daniels’ sister was charged in Brooklyn yesterday with sneaking guns and cash out of her California home after her husband’s drug bust. Leah Daniels-Butler, a casting associate who helped discover “Precious” star Gabourey Sidibe, was released on $50,000 bail after a brief appearance in Brooklyn Federal Court.
She was charged with obstructing a federal investigation and ordered to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet. Her lawyer, Jim McMillan, declined to comment. Daniels-Butler’s husband, Henry (Black) Butler, has been under investigation by the feds for alleged drug dealing.
He was arrested last month near his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and charged with transporting significant quantities of cocaine from Los Angeles to New York. Shortly after his arrest, officers from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department placed his home under surveillance while federal prosecutor Todd Kaminsky tried to arrange a search of the premises. That’s when officers saw his 44-year-old wife leave the home, carrying at least one bag, and drive away in a Mercedes-Benz.
They stopped the luxury sedan and she consented to a search, according to an affidavit filed by Drug Enforcement Administration agent Steven Miller.
A loaded 9-mm. handgun, an unloaded Intratec Tec-9 handgun, several loaded magazines and boxes of ammunition were found in the bag along with $39,500 in cash.
“There is probable cause to believe that the items recovered from the Leah Daniels-Butler vehicle were evidence of Henry Butler’s drug trafficking,” Miller stated.
In an interview last year with NPR radio, Lee Daniels said his sister and casting director Billy Hopkins “had to have seen at least a thousand girls” before they found 350-pound newcomer Sidibe.
She earned an Oscar nomination in her breakout role, and Daniels was also nominated.
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