SMITHTOWN MAN CHARGED IN NASSAU OVERDOSE REMANDED INTO SUFFOLK CUSTODY

(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Daquan Booker, 34, of Smithtown, was ordered remanded after a Suffolk County Court hearing following his re-arrest by Nassau County authorities. Booker had previously been placed into the Suffolk County Court’s Judicial Diversion Program, over the objection of prosecutors.

“The State Legislature has insulated narcotics traffickers like Daquan Booker from the consequences of their actions by prohibiting prosecutors from asking for bail and silencing us in decisions to divert cases away from impactful sentencing. The results have been deadly,” said District Attorney Tierney. “Distribution of fentanyl is never victimless. It is depraved indifference to the lives of our communities and children and prosecutors must be empowered to stop it. The diversion courts in Suffolk and New York are broken and must be fixed before more innocent lives are lost.”

“I am pleased that Daquan Booker was remanded after his court appearance today in Suffolk County. This defendant is being prosecuted in both Suffolk and Nassau Counties for possessing and selling deadly fentanyl. Just yesterday, he was arraigned for allegedly selling illegal opioids to 17-year-old Grace Wrightington that contained fentanyl and resulted in her fatal overdose. However, we could not charge Booker with Grace’s senseless death because of deficiencies in our state law,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly. Working together with District Attorney Tierney, we will continue to put pressure on our legislature to pass meaningful reforms that finally hold drug dealers accountable for the deaths their drugs cause and the pain they inflict upon the families of those who tragically overdose.”

On July 11, 2023, members of the Suffolk County Police Department arrested Booker following the culmination of an investigation that found Booker had sold pressed fentanyl pills to undercover officers. Though Booker was promptly indicted, he remained out of custody because his charges were considered non-bail eligible under New York State law, meaning that prosecutors cannot ask for, and judges cannot set, bail.

On February 27, 2024, Booker pleaded guilty to all four counts in the indictment – which contained two counts of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree, and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree – in exchange for the Court’s commitment to allow the defendant to participate in the Judicial Diversion Program, a state-created program reserved for those individuals whose crimes are found to have a nexus with a defendant’s personal substance abuse or addiction. The District Attorney’s Office had strongly opposed his entry into the program.

On June 15, 2024, members of the Suffolk County Police Department arrested Booker on a second occasion, following an alleged Reckless Driving offense that resulted in additional charges for Obstructing Governmental Administration in the Second Degree, Resisting Arrest, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree, and Assault in the Second Degree. Although he was remanded following his arrest, the Court later decided to release Booker in August, and afford him an additional opportunity to resume participation in the Judicial Diversion Program. This decision, too, was over an objection by the District Attorney.

On October 11, 2024, Booker was arrested on an indictment warrant that had been issued out of neighboring Nassau County. In execution of that warrant, authorities apprehended Booker at the Riverhead Correctional Facility, where he had intended to visit an inmate.

Upon his return to Nassau County for processing, Booker was allegedly found to possess a quantity of cocaine, resulting in yet another criminal charge for Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Seventh Degree. Booker was released following arraignment on all charges in Nassau County on October 15, 2024.

On October 16, 2024, subject to a renewed application by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Booker was remanded without bail on his original case pending in Suffolk County Court, and a pre-sentence investigation was ordered. His next scheduled court date has been set for November 1, 2024.

Supreme Court Justice Philip Goglas, who remanded Booker, had previously promised the defendant an upstate sentence of two years determinate; to be followed by two years of post-release supervision, should Booker fail to complete the terms of treatment set forth in his Judicial Diversion contract. He is being represented by Danielle Papa, Esq.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Lauren Golombek of the Narcotics Bureau, and the investigation was conducted by members of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Narcotics Section.

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