Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jul 2001
Source: Daily Record, The (NJ)
Copyright: 2001 The Daily Record
Contact:  http://www.dailyrecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/112
Author: Peggy Wright
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

STATE SEEKS MONEY FROM DRUG RAID

The Morris County Prosecutor's Office filed two forfeiture lawsuits 
Monday that claim rights to $6,381 seized from four of six Drew 
University students accused in April of selling or having drugs in 
their possession.

One lawsuit, filed by Assistant Prosecutor James A. Cannon in 
Superior Court, Morristown, seeks forfeiture of $3,921 seized on 
April 10 during a raid on a suite in Hurst Hall at the university's 
campus in Madison. The state's forfeiture law permits authorities to 
procure money allegedly derived through crime.

Most of the $3,921 was found in the common living area and bedrooms 
of the Hurst Hall suite, along with marijuana, hashish, various 
pills, Psilocybin mushrooms, growing products, a digital scale and a 
butterfly knife. A small amount, $576, was found on student Marco 
Figueiredo, 19, of Hillside, the complaint stated.

Student Dustin Haselton, 19, of Williston, Vt., told borough 
Detective Sgt. Al Troianello that he was solely responsible for 
possession of the marijuana and selling the drug from his dorm room 
at Hurst Hall, according to the lawsuit.

Haselton, the grandson of a benefactor who has given millions to the 
college, also claimed that the $576 taken from suite-mate Figueiredo 
was actually his money that he loaned to the friend, the lawsuit said.

Haselton, who is due in Superior Court today for a conference on the 
charges that include possession and intent to distribute drugs, will 
argue against forfeiture of the money because the money legitimately 
is his own, defense lawyer Raymond Flood said.

"He is a student from a financially well-off family and the money is 
legal income from investments," Flood said.

In a separate but simultaneous raid on April 10, police seized $2,460 
from room 309 in Asbury Hall that was occupied by Katherine Theisen, 
20, of Kent, Conn., and Julia Wherley, 21, of Bernardsville. Police 
found marijuana in a Mason jar and in a knapsack in their room, as 
well as hashish, cocaine, Psilocybin mushrooms, Ecstasy pills and an 
electronic scale. Theisen claimed ownership of the marijuana during 
the search of her room and she was carrying $365 of the $2,460 found 
in her room, the lawsuit said.

The intent to distribute charges against Haselton, Theisen and 
Wherley are the most serious and will be handled in Superior Court. 
Charges against Figueiredo and suite-mates Jonathan Friesen, 22, of 
Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and Lucas Buzzard, 20, of Oregon, will be 
handled in municipal court because they involve possession of less 
than 50 grams of marijuana.

University spokesman Thomas Harris said that "appropriate sanctions" 
were taken against all the accused students, but that confidentiality 
rules barred him from specifically disclosing whether the students 
could continue their educations at Drew.
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