More Than 2,000 Charges Dismissed After Court Review Of Drug Tests

By Nikita Biryukov, New Jersey Monitor

September 13, 2022

A Superior Court judge ordered more than 2,000 drug charges spanning a decade dismissed after a review spurred by mishandled drug analyses at a State Police laboratory.

Judge Edward Jerejian’s review was launched in 2016, months after a worker at the lab reported a technician filing test results without screening samples for the presence of drugs.

More than 10,000 charges spanning 7,800 cases across 13 counties were subject to Jerejian’s review.

Individuals whose charges were dismissed may be entitled to reimbursements.

The technician accused of falsifying test results retired before the court’s probe began and was never charged with a crime. His alleged misconduct led State Police drug labs to adopt a more strenuous testing method using mass spectrometry and gas chromatography. Previously, lab technicians tested samples by viewing them under a microscope.

Jerejian’s review could not locate information for 523 possibly affected cases, noting they were likely inaccessible because the records had been expunged.

New Jersey Monitor, the Garden State’s newest news site, provides fair and tough reporting on the issues affecting New Jersey, from political corruption to education to criminal and social justice. The Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.