Accomack Schools say Deangela Morton, charged in a Hallwood drug investigation, served as a volunteer since 2022 and has been taken off the roster

By Linda Cicoira

Accomack Schools Public Information Officer Danielle Clark said late Friday that the cheerleading coach, who was charged with drug offenses at her home, was not “an employee” of the division.

Thirty-eight-year-old Deangela Renee Morton, of Hallwood, “was a volunteer coach since the fall of 2022, who received a stipend for her time coaching,” Clark added. “She has been removed from the coaching roster,” the information officer reported.

Morton is presumed innocent at this stage, as she hasn’t even gone through the first court phase of a preliminary hearing. According to jail records, Morton is also no longer being held in custody. She was granted a $20,000 secured bond on Thursday because a pretrial assessment recommended it.

While on bond, Morton is prohibited from using alcohol and drugs or having a weapon. She will live at her mother’s house with her children and wear an ankle monitor.

On Oct. 22, police searched Morton’s home, where she and her two children lived with her husband, 38-year-old Ricky Ernest Johnson Jr. The children were not home at the time, according to court statements.

Morton was later charged with possession with intent to distribute a Schedule I or II drug, possession of a firearm while in possession of the drug, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession of firearm while in possession of more than a pound of marijuana, possession of a Schedule I or II, possession of a firearm while in possession of a Schedule I or II, and misdemeanor neglect and abuse of a child.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan said during the search, and in plain view, officers seized marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, packages of cutting agents, and what was suspected to be MDMA, also known as ecstasy. In an abandoned house nearby, cocaine and more packages of cutting agents were found.

“She is part of this conspiracy to distribute narcotics,” the prosecutor said. She is reaping the benefit … She has the jewelry, clothes, vehicles.”

Defense lawyer Kenneth Singleton argued for the bond. “They know she isn’t any part of it,” he said. “There is not one thing showing that she’s ever been in any sale … she was outside. Johnson had gone. She was cooperative. She’s with the wrong guy. She needs to cut ties with him.”

Johnson is being held without bond in Talbot County, Maryland, where he is accused of two felony drug charges, which are alleged to have occurred on the same day the search at the Hallwood home was made. He is listed in Maryland court records as living in Snow Hill, Maryland.

Accomack court records show Johnson was sentenced to three years of active time in 2015 for three felony counts of illegal drug distribution.