HAMMOND | While court personnel wore breathing masks and rubber gloves to block the drug-resistant staph infection MRSA, a judge allowed two men charged with selling Ecstasy to remain out of jail before further hearings in Hammond federal court.

Magistrate Judge Paul Cherry continued a detention hearing Thursday for Allan H. Walker, 21, of Gary, who has MRSA. Walker and his brother, Wendell Walker, are both charged with selling Ecstasy.

Wendell Walker was released from jail on a $20,000 bond he won't have to pay unless he violates his release terms or fails to come to his next hearing June 5. Allan Walker, a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair, will remain on house arrest until his hearing May 13.

He wore a breathing mask in court Thursday.

Federal agents claim Allan Walker told his brother to trade seven Ecstasy pills and $250 to an undercover federal agent for two .40-caliber pistols on Sunday.

Court papers also say federal agents monitored Allan Walker throughout April as he sold crack and marijuana to undercover informants. Those undercover informants also acted as straw buyers for guns between November 2008 and January 2009, court papers say.

Agents allege Walker and the buyers picked out dozens of guns at a Gary sport shop. Allan Walker sold guns in Chicago, federal authorities say. Handguns are banned in Chicago.

Allan Walker is also charged in Porter County with criminal mischief. He is accused of tearing through Liberty Township in a Ford Mustang on April 21, ramming mailboxes and garbage cans before he was arrested early April 22. He was arrested as he sat in the parked car outside a South Haven apartment complex, police said.

Police said Allan Walker sat in the car for hours because his paralysis stopped him from getting out.