Prosecutor reinstates drug charges against Brodherson '00

The Princeton municipal prosecutor has reinstated a drug-related charge against Marc Brodherson '00, whom police arrested last September after they searched his room to find the cause of his roommate's collapse, Emily Hornaday, a spokeswoman for the Mercer County prosecutor's office, said Friday.

Borough Police Lt. Charles Davall said that a miscommunication between the municipal prosecutor and the Mercer County prosecutor had taken place, leading to the dismissal of all the charges against Brodherson. "The case was dismissed in error," he said.

Brodherson was charged with multiple counts of drug possession, including possession of Psilocybin, commonly known as "shrooms."

The room search leading to his arrest was prompted by the collapse of Brodherson's roommate, Andrew Frisbie '00, outside of Brown Hall.

Charges

The charges against Brodherson were subsequently downgraded by the Mercer County prosecutor's office, and later dismissed after Frisbie took responsibility as part of a pre-trial intervention agreement for marijuana, Ritalin and drug paraphernalia allegedly found in their dorm room.

According to Davall, however, Frisbie could not take responsibility for Brodherson's alleged failure to make a lawful disposition of Psilocybin during the room search because Frisbie had not been present.

As a result, Borough Police called for that one charge against Brodherson to be reinstated.

Hornaday refused to comment on which agency or agencies — Borough Police, the Mercer County prosecutor's office or the municipal prosecutor's office — had made an error in allowing the case to be dismissed.

"The municipal prosecutor sought the advice of [the Mercer county prosecutor's] office, and we expressed no objections as to a dismissal," she said. "Some of the facts relayed were incomplete at the time of the dismissal, and I don't think anything is served by going into details here. We just didn't have the complete facts."

"We're not trying to point blame here," she added.

Brodherson's attorney, Jerome Ballarotto — who in an interview in January said he had filed a motion to suppress the evidence collected during the search of Brodherson's room — declined Friday to comment on the details of the case. "There's a plethora of motions we will now be filing," he said.

Brodherson, who declined to comment yesterday, is scheduled for a court date April 10, according to Janice Seyfarth, a deputy municipal court administrator.