Officers with the Edison Police Department took the mayor's 28-year-old son into custody on Jan. 12. Reportedly, officers were responding to calls reporting a vehicle parked and running on the lawn of a home.
Upon arriving to the residence, officers reportedly found the 28-year-old man passed out in the driver's seat of the idling car around 8:35 p.m. Upon waking the man, officers apparently conducted a search of him as well as the vehicle. Reportedly, police found 200 packets of heroin, a small amount of marijuana and $400 in the man's possession.
The man is accused of three felony counts of drug possession and one count of drug distribution. His case was transferred to Piscataway to avoid any conflict of interest. The judge in Piscataway set the man's bail at $25,000, which he was able to post. He has been released from custody. It is unclear whether the drugs were found on the man's person or elsewhere in the car. It is also unclear what prompted the search or whether a warrant was first obtained.
People who are charged with a drug crime following a warrantless search may want to file an evidentiary motion to challenge the search. If a search is conducted without sufficient probable cause to carry it out, it may be held to be unconstitutional. Case law indicates that all evidence derived from an unconstitutional search should be suppressed. In this man's case, if the search is found to be illegal, the drugs and cash the police allegedly found could not be used against him at a trial. The prosecution would then have little choice but to dismiss the charges against him. Often, people who are charged with drug offenses find it helpful to seek the assistance of a criminal defense attorney in order to help with their defense and review any searches that were conducted.
Source: Nj.com, "Edison police arrest mayor's son on drug charges", Brian Amaral, Jan. 13, 2015