Pubdate: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 Source: Asbury Park Press (NJ) Copyright: 2001 Asbury Park Press Contact: http://www.injersey.com/app/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/26 Author: Carol Gorga Williams PROSECUTOR FIGHTING DRUG RULING TOMS RIVER -- The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office wants the state Supreme Court to decide whether people arrested in Shore clubs with designer drugs - - who have no prior arrests - deserve a break. Millard's office has filed documents to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider an appellate court decision earlier this month that upheld a decision by Superior Court Judge Peter J. Giovine to allow a Bergen County man into a diversionary program. Darren M. Cray, 28, Lyndhurst, has been charged with possession of Ecstasy and possession with the intent to distribute it June 18, 2000, in Seaside Heights. Cray and his lawyer, John J. Bruno Jr., had argued to Giovine in April that Cray should be allowed into the county's pretrial intervention program, a diversionary program that allows first-time nonviolent offenders to complete a supervised program without having to admit guilt. If they successfully complete the program, charges against them are dropped. Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Robert W. Scott II argued that designer or party drugs are reaching near-epidemic levels at the Shore, and that many of the dealers come to Ocean County to push their drugs on willing tourists. Scott also referred to a recent documentary on MSNBC that explored the Shore connection to Ecstasy. "That is a very important thing, to attack the amount of people bringing these drugs into the club scene and causing problems," Scott said in April. Scott said admitting Cray into the PTI program would "send the wrong message to people dealing drugs in Seaside Heights. Seaside Heights is almost deemed to be a zone where anything goes. That attitude has got to be changed." Giovine maintained that each candidate needed to be judged individually. Further, Giovine said, the amount of Ecstasy Cray is accused of possessing raises questions about whether he was really dealing the drugs. At the time of his arrest, he had 12 pills and about $136 in his pocket. In the summer, Ecstasy can sell at the Shore for between $15 and $40 a pill, generally averaging in Ocean County at $20 a pill. Giovine said Cray's rejection was based on a general policy by the prosecutor's office to refuse entry into PTI particularly to "nonresidents" of Seaside Heights arrested with Ecstasy. When Cray was arrested outside Temptations nightclub, he insisted the drugs were for his own use, court records show. The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether it will hear the case. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom