2 Men Charged After Howell Woman Dies Of Overdose: Prosecutor

HOWELL, NJ — Two men were arrested and charged last week in connection to a woman who died of an overdose in November 2020, according to Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey.

Terrance R. Rose, 38, from Freehold Borough and Reginald A. Simeus, 42, from Howell were both charged with first-degree strict liability for a drug-induced death.

Simeus was arrested with no incident at his home and Rose turned himself in at the Howell Police Department on Monday.

On Nov. 17 2020, Howell police responded to a report of a possible drug overdose and arrived at a residence to find 35-year-old Katherine Hughes, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Upon investigation, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Howell Township Police Department discovered that Rose and Simeus had been in contact with Hughes in the time leading up to her death.

Simeus got the drugs from Rose before passing them along to Hughes, the investigation also found.

Rose and Simeus had previously been charged with other drug-related charges, during the early phase of the investigation. Those charges remain pending.

"During recent years, there has been a sea change in how law enforcement has approached substance abuse, shifting from a strategy built more on enforcement to one built more on compassion," Linskey said. "But that compassion is reserved only for those fighting to turn their lives around – not for those who would literally trade those individuals’ lives for a modest financial gain. We hope the charges being announced today send a clear message to that latter group."

Simeus has been released on his own recognizance and Rose was taken to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in Freehold, where he is waiting for a detention hearing before a Monmouth County Superior Court Judge on Friday.