Reaching across state lines
By Bob Quinn
WARWICK — New Jersey authorities have charged a Paterson, N.J., man on a first-degree charge of strict liability for drug-induced death for allegedly selling heroin laced with fentanyl that killed a man at his home in Warwick last month.
Shawn Flemmings, 33, was arrested Friday, Nov. 20, by members of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office. He is being held in Passaic County Jail on $100,000 bail.
Flemmings is charged in connection with the death of Stephen Ference, who was found dead inside his home as a result of an overdose.
The charge carries a sentence of 10 to 20 years in state prison.
Case begins in WarwickAccording to information provided by the N.J. Division of Criminal Justice, Warwick Town Police initiated the investigation on Oct. 17 when they responded to Ference’s home on an emergency call after he was found unresponsive. Ference, 27, was pronounced dead at scene.
Officers found syringes and empty glassine envelopes on the bed next to the body and on the floor. Police seized 23 single-dose glassine envelopes of heroin and four empty ones, all stamped “Ball Room” in black ink.
The Orange County Medical Examiner later determined that Ference had opiates in his system and died of acute fentanyl intoxication.
As medicine, fentanyl is used to treat moderate to severe chronic pain. It is described as approximately 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine and roughly 40 to 50 times more potent than pharmaceutical grade (100 percent pure) heroin.
Cell phone dataWarwick officers seized Ference’s iPhone, which authorities said revealed potential communications with his heroin supplier in Paterson, N.J., who was identifed by his street name “S.”
Warwick police turned the telephone over to the New York Attorney General’s Office. The phone’s call log, text messages and other information revealed that Ference traveled on Oct. 16 to Vreeland Avenue in Paterson, where police said he obtained heroin.
At this point, the New York Attorney General contacted its counterpart in Trenton, setting in motion the case in Passaic County.
Passaic County Sheriff’s detectives already were familiar with Flemmings as an alleged drug dealer called “S” who police said was dealing in the block where Ference obtained heroin. Flemmings was arrested Oct. 27 on drug charges, including a charge that on Oct. 26, while under surveillance, he distributed a “brick” of approximately 50 glassine envelopes of heroin stamped with “Ball Room” on the same block where Ference obtained heroin prior to his death.
Joint investigationLaw enforcement agencies in both New Jersey and New York are partners on the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Heroin Task Force, a group of state attorneys general that promotes collaboration to fight heroin trafficking. Through prior task force discussions, New York prosecutors were aware of New Jersey’s strict liability statue and the potential to prosecute a drug dealer for a first-degree crime in connection with an overdose.
"New York doesn’t have a similar statute to address criminal responsibility for drug dealers who cause death," Warwick Police Chief Thomas F. McGovern Jr. said in an email exchange with Straus News. "We hope this case will facilitate that legislation and are glad to be able to try and help local prosecutions for this problem."
James Skoufis, the Democrat from Woodbury, has sponsored such a bill in the state Assembly.
Forty-nine overdoses, four deaths
McGovern also said there have been 49 reported overdoses in the Town of Warwick this year. Three other people have died in addition to Ference.
Warwick Police officers have administered Narcan and all but one were successful, the chief added. Narcan is a medication used to reverse the effects of opioids especially in overdose.
But if there is no circulation to begin with, as was the case when officer responded Ference's case, the Narcan will not be effective, McGovern added.