County prosecutor drops remaining charges against ‘NJ Weedman’
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office announced Wednesday afternoon that all remaining charges against Ed Forchion, better known as NJ Weedman, have been dismissed
“After a review of the defendant’s pending cases, we feel the downgrade and dismissal of the charges is an appropriate resolution,’ the Mercer County Prosecutor said in a written statement. “This determination was made after taking into consideration the recent shift in the climate of marijuana legislation in New Jersey as well as the changes in state law with regard to bail reform.”
Those factors call for “an adjustment in the way the office uses its resources and assistance from other law enforcement agencies in order to prioritize detention cases such as murders, attempted murders and violent crime,” the prosecutor said. “The fact that the defendant has served more than a year in prison while these cases were pending was also taken into consideration,” the prosecutor said in the statement.
The announcement comes two weeks after a jury found Forchion not guilty of witness tampering. He had been locked up in jail without bail since police arrested him on witness tampering charges on March 3 of 2017. It took two trials and 14 months for a jury to decide his fate.
Forchion, along with two co-defendants, was arrested and charged on March 3, of 2017 following a raid on his restaurant by Trenton police officers. One of the charges in that arrest has been downgraded to a disorderly persons offense and will be prosecuted in Trenton Municipal Court. The remaining counts have been dismissed. In 2016, a Mercer County grand jury returned an indictment charging Forchion with one count of fourth-degree cyber harassment. That charge has been downgraded to a petty disorderly persons offense and will be prosecuted in Trenton Municipal Court.
On Aug. 5 of 2016, a Mercer County grand jury returned an 11-count indictment charging Forchion with numerous narcotic offenses related to a two-month investigation by the Mercer County Narcotics Task Force. Four of those counts have been downgraded to disorderly persons offenses and will be prosecuted in the Trenton Municipal Court. The remaining counts have been dismissed.
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.