Pubdate: Fri, 13 May 2005
Source: The Cape Codder (MA)
Contact:  
http://www2.townonline.com/brewster
Address: 5 Namskaket Rd, Orleans, MA 02653
Copyright: 2005 Community Newspaper Company
Author: Bill Fonda
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

ARRESTS POINT TO SPIKE IN HEROIN USE

ORLEANS - Orleans Police Chief Jeffrey Roy said Thursday that heroin has 
become more prevalent locally, the day after Scott Burk was arrested in 
connection with the overdose death of Thomas Bok.

"We've made a lot of arrests in a lot of buys for heroin over the past two 
or three years," Roy said. "It's very cheap right now, and it's stronger 
than usual. The market's kind of flooded right now."

Burk, an Orleans resident, turned himself into police Wednesday and was 
charged with distribution of a Class A substance. He is due in Orleans 
District Court for a pretrial hearing June 14.

Bok's body was found April 25, although court records said it appeared he 
had been dead for at least a day. Police said Bok had a visible track mark 
on his right arm and blood on his T-shirt, and that a syringe was next to 
his arm.

Police said that Thomas J. Sorace of Orleans, who worked with Bok at Papa 
Gino's, told Detective William Norton April 28 that Bok said to him "if you 
hang with me, I'll get you some good stuff" prior to meeting with someone 
driving a Jeep Cherokee matching the description of Burk's vehicle in the 
Stop & Shop parking lot.

Sorace had been arrested on unrelated charges earlier that day.

According to court records, Burk called police April 30 and left the 
message, "I'm your man. I'm the one who sold Tom the heroin that put him 
out," but he was hospitalized before police could arrest him after an 
apparent suicide attempt.

Reports show that when Burk called May 10 to say he would turn himself in, 
he told police that he had also been to Gosnold, a substance abuse 
treatment facility, on Cape Cod.

Confronting Drugs And Rumors

Burk's arrest came less than two weeks after police charged David E. Pike 
Jr. April 28 with distribution of a Class A substance in conjunction with 
the April 15 heroin overdose death of Nicholas Tannuzzo.

Police said Wednesday that they have issued summonses for several other 
suspects in the Pike case on charges of distribution of a Class A substance 
and knowingly being present where heroin was kept.

Pike, 41, had been arrested Feb. 22 and charged with Class A possession 
with intent to distribute after police allegedly found him with 38 bags of 
heroin.

Tannuzzo's body was found in a house at 16 South Orleans Road, on the same 
property as The Juice Bar. According to Juice Bar manager Jenifer Dibble, 
the rumors had spread so fast that by the next day, she received a call 
from a parent about the Nauset, Together We Can youth facility being closed 
due to a drug bust.

Dibble said she put that rumor to rest, and that the only contact anyone 
from The Juice Bar has had with the house next door was when someone came 
over in June to ask patrons not to park in their lot.

"Sometimes, they're sitting right outside when we come in, and they never 
say hello," she said of the house's residents. "I've never seen them on our 
side of the property."

The Juice Bar was hosting an art show the night of Tannuzzo's death. Dibble 
said the show ended at 9 or 9:30 p.m., but youths were still there because 
the establishment was open until 11, so they noticed the police cars at the 
house.

"Obviously, the kids were intrigued, but obviously something big was going 
on, and I kept the kids inside that night," she said.

During concerts, patrons have to stay on the ramp or in the Juice Bar 
parking lot if they want to go outside, and they must be accompanied by an 
adult.

"(Dibble has) been doing a great job over there keeping the place drug- and 
alcohol- and tobacco-free," Roy said.

As for the larger issue of drugs, Roy said publicity and education will 
play major roles in fighting it.

"It's just unfortunate that we don't have the personnel to get in the 
middle school or the high school," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman