Overdose numbers spike past 85 in New Haven, Conn.; 2 men arraigned

Published 3:25 am Friday, August 17, 2018

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Two men were arraigned in state court Thursday afternoon on charges related to Wednesday and Thursday’s mass overdose of the synthetic marijuana drug known as “K2,” as stricken people continued to drop in and around New Haven’s downtown green. By Thursday afternoon, more than 85 overdose cases had been treated, according to officials.

New Haven police Chief Anthony Campbell said one of two men suspected of distributing the K2 was handing it out to build demand and clientele. Another suspect was charging money for the drugs. The chief said investigators believe more of the batch is still out in the community.

Felix Melendez, 37, and John Parker, 53, were arraigned in Superior Court in New Haven Thursday afternoon.

Parker, 53, was arrested after officers recovered more than 30 bags of K2 in his hotel room. Court records assert he was selling packets of the dangerously strong synthetic drug for $3 to $5 a bag. He was held late Thursday, with bail set at $75,000 on a charge of possession of narcotics with the intent to sell. His lawyer, public defender Shepard Sherwood, said there is no proof that drugs Parker may have had were causing the overdoses.

New Haven police also found at least 30 bags of K2 at a residence where Melendez was staying, according to court records. He is suspected of distributing the K2 that caused the overdoses but Sherwood noted Thursday that he had not been charged in that case “yet.” Melendez had been arrested in May for allegedly dealing K2 on the New Haven green. He is on probation, with five years of jail time hanging over his head. He also has four previous drug felonies on his record, court officials said. Superior Court Judge Maureen Price-Boreland set bond at $300,000 for Melendez.

Officials at City Hall Thursday said that some of the 85 overdose cases included people treated two or three times because they went back to the green to smoke more K2 after being released from the hospital.

“We’ve discovered that the K2 involved was very short acting but also rapid acting version of the drug,” said Dr. Sandy Bogucki, the EMS and medical director for the Yale-New Haven Hospital region. “People who smoked it or ingested it tended to go down very fast, almost right in their tracks. And then although many of them had to be resuscitated … the effects did not last long and they were able to be discharged from the hospital fairly soon which meant they were able to return to the green and seek another high.”

“This is not falling on deaf ears,” Rick Fontana, New Haven’s emergency management director, said Thursday morning. “We want to get a handle on it.”

But after New Haven Mayor Toni Harp held a news conference Thursday outlining the city’s response, a Republican legislative leader said the city has let its downtown green slip into the hands of drug peddlers and transients. New Haven spokesman Laurence Grotheer strongly disputed this, saying the upper and lower greens remain vibrant hubs. But smaller drug outbreaks had occurred in February and July.

“What happened in New Haven yesterday … speaks to a painful and ugly reality about drug abuse we have to work together to combat,” said GOP Sen. Len Fasano, the Senate president pro tem. “It also speaks to a city that has allowed one of its primary community centers, the New Haven green, to deteriorate to the point where it is no longer an attraction for families or economic development, but a place of despair. The green is just steps away from City Hall, and town officials know drug use on the green was not limited to just what happened yesterday. There is a known problem there that occurs every day and has not been addressed.”

Campbell, the city police chief, said the green and the surrounding blocks get a tremendous amount of police attention, but he added that the department is down dozens of officers and he could not regularly divert police resources to the downtown area from other districts.

Sue Hatfield, the Republican candidate for state attorney general and a state prosecutor, called for a federal and multistate task force to crack down on the distribution of K2 and opioids, and for penalties to be ratcheted up, particularly when it is shown that a K2 dealer has laced the drug with fentanyl or other substances. She said that as a mental health nurse at Yale-New Haven Hospital, she’s seen people devastated by K2, opioids, and other drugs coming into New Haven and elsewhere.

New Haven officials acknowledged they are experiencing a public health crisis with drug use in the city, particularly at the New Haven green — ostensibly a center for music, art and recreation downtown.

At the news conference at City Hall, top city leaders said the police, fire and other emergency services are taxed, and state funding has been dwindling even as demand for resources increases. The huge need for medical attention Wednesday and Thursday put a strain on first responders, they said. “People have to understand that those folks out on the green, when they’re taking firefighters, paramedics off the street, the business doesn’t stop. We still have the rest of the city to deal with,” said Fontana.