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Bergen County prosecutors increase pressure in war on heroin with death charges

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Bergen County prosecutors increase pressure in war on heroin with death charges
Wednesday June 12, 2013, 7:42 PM
BY  KIBRET MARKOS AND REBECCA D. O’BRIEN
STAFF WRITERS
The Record

In a clear escalation of the war on the heroin trade and the growing epidemic of overdoses, authorities on Wednesday charged two Bergen County men with causing the “drug-induced death” of an Emerson woman by supplying her with the drugs that led to a fatal overdose.

AMY NEWMAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
From left, Jessie Kurzweil and Christopher Benvenuto appear in court Wednesday.

The decision by Bergen County prosecutors signals a move to go after small-time dealers, using a decades-old law that equates suppliers with killers if the drugs that they placed on the street end up causing a user’s death.

Christopher Benvenuto, 27, of Old Tappan and Jessie Kurzweel, 26, of Closter, were the latest to be charged with “strict liability for drug-induced death” by prosecutors across North Jersey over the last few months. Doreen Leach, 47, of Emerson, died Tuesday of a suspected heroin overdose.

“The local street dealers who think they can get away with probation because they are dealing in small amounts have to understand that, every time they do that, they are risking a substantial amount of prison time,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said Wednesday.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/closter/Bergen_County_prosecutors_increase_pressure_in_war_with_heroin.html#sthash.xAYwcti4.dpuf

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