3rd Greenwich Resident Charged in Connection with Overdose Death

Greenwich Time- Police arrested a third person Wednesday in connection with the overdose death of Riverside teenager Christopher Harris, who was found unresponsive at his Florence Road home in January 2011.

Christopher A. Lundell, 20, of 5 Wellington Place, Apt. A, turned himself in to Greenwich police on a warrant. He was charged with possession of narcotics, possession of drug paraphernalia and conspiracy to possess narcotics.



Lt. Kraig Gray, spokesman for the Greenwich Police Department, said police held a non-extraditable warrant for Lundell in connection with the investigation into the death of 18-year-old Harris, who was found Jan. 8, 2011.



Lundell recently returned from California, Gray said.



"An arrangement was made between his attorney and the state's attorney for him to turn himself in upon return, and he did so," Gray said.



Two other Greenwich residents, George C. Ramirez and William Nelson, turned themselves in to police in August in connection with the investigation. Ramirez was charged with distribution of a controlled substance and conspiracy to possess narcotics.



Nelson was charged with possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and conspiracy to possess narcotics.



Nelson, Ramirez and Lundell were among a group of friends who went to Harris' home Jan. 7 to visit him because he was sick, according to the warrant for Ramirez's arrest.



Ramirez told police everyone except he and Harris were drinking that night and that the friends smoked marijuana, according to his arrest warrant.



During the night, Nelson and Ramirez drove to New York to buy the painkiller Opana, and Harris, Nelson and Ramirez all used Opana during the night, according to the warrant.



After being found unresponsive around 9 a.m. Jan. 8, Harris was transported to Stamford Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.



Ramirez, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess narcotics, is scheduled to receive an eight-year prison term, suspended after two years, at his June 5 sentencing. He will also serve three years of probation following the prison term.



Nelson's case is still pending.



Lundell posted $1,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Stamford June 13.



david.hennessey@scni.com; 203-625-4428

This Day In History

Jan 4 1964
The Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo kills his final victim, Mary Sullivan, age 19, at her Charles Street apartment.


Jan 4 1986
Phil Lynott, founder of heavy metal band "Thin Lizzy", dies from heart failure brought on by a drug overdose.

Jan 4 1997
Rumors run rampant through Israel, particularly over talk radio, that a UFO will land at Tel Aviv on the following day. The predictions are purported to have been made by spoonbender Uri Geller. Thousands flock to the beaches, but no saucers.

This Day In History

Dec 14 1503
Nostradamus born. If you write vague enough prophecies, they will fool almost anyone.

Dec 14 1944
Lupe Velez, Hollywood's "Mexican Spitfire" of the 1940's, commits suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. Contrary to her plans of being found laid out on the bed in a silk nightgown, she is instead discovered in the bathroom with her head in the toilet. Her ex-husband, Tarzan star Johnny Weismuller, frequently used to beat her.

Dec 14 1991
A ferry near Safaga, Egypt on the Red Sea strikes a coral reef, drowning more than 460 passengers.

Dead Body Found at Bridgeport Holiday Inn

BRIDGEPORT -- Police are investigating an untimely death at the Holiday Inn on Main Street Tuesday afternoon, according to police spokesman Tim Quinn.

The death is being treated as a likely drug overdose, police said.

It was not immediately known where the body was found or who discovered it. Police are waiting to release further details pending notification of next of kin of the person who died, Quinn said.

Earlier in the day police responded to an untimely death in a Bishop Avenue apartment building, police said. In that incident, police received a report from a person living in an apartment below the deceased, who discovered blood dripping through the ceiling. The body was found in the apartment's bathroom and it was not immediately known how the person died, but foul play was not suspected, police said.

IU Student Faced Drug Charges

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WISH) - The Indiana University student who died from an apparent drug overdose was arrested over the summer on drug charges.

24-Hour News 8 has learned Brian Macken was arrested in Aug. in Greenwich, Conn. for allegedly dealing drugs out of his home.

Macken took the fall semester off of school and had just returned to campus for the spring semester when he was rushed from the Phi Sigma Kappa house after an apparent overdose.

University police did find evidence of possible drug use at Macken’s dorm room, though officials didn’t release the cause of Macken’s death. Police say Macken apparently used drugs before going to the frat house.

Macken is a native of Greenwich, Conn. and was known in the community for his time on his high school’s hockey team, according to local newspaper Greenwich Time.

In a news release, the IU Police Department said, “The entire university community is saddened by this loss.”

Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend, Doctor Guilty of Using False names

CNN- Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend-lawyer Howard K. Stern and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich were found guilty Thursday on charges of conspiring to provide drugs using false names.

Another defendant in the case, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, was acquitted on all counts against him.

"This is really a victory not just for me, but it is a victory for patients everywhere in our nation who suffer chronic pain,and physicians who treat difficult chronic pain every day," Kapoor said outside the courthouse.

The jury failed to convict any of the defendants of providing drugs to a known addict, which was the linchpin of the prosecution's case.

Stern was acquitted on seven of the nine counts he faced.

"These were all the counts related to whether the medications were for a legitimate medical purpose or for whether Anna Nicole was an addict," Stern said. "What the jury did find me guilty of were two conspiracy counts limited exclusively to my name being used on medications for Anna. This was done to protect Anna Nicole's privacy and it was nothing more than that."

The verdicts came in a complex case that included two months of testimony and 13 days of jury deliberations.

Stern's attorney, Steve Sadow, said after the trial that the conspiracy conviction for his client was for Stern having given his consent to Eroshevich to use Stern's name on prescriptions intended for Smith.

The charges against Eroshevich, a psychiatrist who flew to Smith's side in the Bahamas after her son's death in 2006, were related to using Stern's name and another woman's name to write prescriptions for Smith.

Stern and the doctors were charged with conspiring to feed the reality TV star and Playboy model's drug addiction, and using false names to obtain the drugs over the last three years of her life. The three defendants were not charged in Smith's February 2007 death in a Florida hotel, which a medical examiner ruled was an accidental overdose of a sleep aid combined with the effects of a viral flu.

After the verdicts were read, Eroshevich said she "felt good," despite the conviction because she was prepared for the jury's decision.

The case raised questions about ethical boundaries in a doctor-patient relationship, the prescribing of painkillers and anti-anxiety medicines and the use of fake names when treating celebrities.

The defense called only one witness -- an expert who concluded that Smith suffered from chronic pain, depression and anxiety, not drug addiction.

Her drug dependency was legal since it was for legitimate medical purposes, including for treatment of her pain and anxiety, defense lawyers argued.

The prosecution said the doctors never said no to Smith's drug-seeking because they wanted to be part of her celebrity entourage.

False names were used by Stern and the doctors to hide excessive prescriptions from the state's computer system that monitors drug usage, prosecutors argued. The defense said it is a common practice in Hollywood, used to protect celebrities' privacy from prying tabloid reporters.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry hinted before the verdicts were returned that if any defendants were found guilty, he would consider "possible selective prosecution issues" when sentencing them. He would have the power to reduce most of the felony charges to misdemeanors.

After the verdicts were returned, Perry set sentencing for January 6. Stern and Eroshevich could face a maximum of three years each in prison, according to the prosecutor's office.

DJ AM, Star Disc Jockey, Found Dead

NY Times- DJ AM, a high-profile disc jockey who was as famous for his much-chronicled relationships as he was for his creative scratching and mixing on the celebrity club circuit, was found dead on Friday evening in his apartment in Manhattan, the police said.

The police said his body was found in his seventh-floor apartment in SoHo about 5:30 p.m. after friends had tried unsuccessfully to reach him for days. The chief police spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said the police did not suspect foul play.

DJ AM, 36, whose real name was Adam Goldstein, was discovered face-down in his bed wearing only sweatpants, with a crack pipe and unspecified prescription drugs nearby, an official said.

Emergency workers had to break down the door to get in after one of the friends who had been trying to reach Mr. Goldstein called 911 on Friday.

In an interview with The New York Times in 2007, Mr. Goldstein said he drank heavily, used cocaine and smoked crack in his early 20s, reaching his lowest point when he attempted suicide in 1997. But he also said he had cleaned up his life — including having gastric bypass surgery after his weight ballooned to 324 pounds — and had managed to stay sober for nine years.

“At my core I am a glutton, so I’ve had to learn everything in moderation,” he said at the time.

In October, The Associated Press reported, MTV was to begin his new reality show, “Gone Too Far,” in which he and concerned families staged interventions for drug abusers.

He also survived a plane crash a year ago that nearly killed him.

A native of Philadelphia, Mr. Goldstein was known for his “mash up” style of spinning, in which he jumped across various genres and eras to combine songs from artists as different as Jay-Z and Journey.

He had been a familiar figure on the Los Angeles club circuit since the 1990s, but it was his highly publicized relationships with Nicole Richie and other starlets in recent years that earned him B-list stardom. He was featured in an episode of “Entourage” on HBO, and he commanded fees in the tens of thousands of dollars to spin at nightclubs in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York.

In 2006, he presided at a party during Super Bowl XL in Detroit that was attended by three generations of the Henry Ford family.

Mr. Goldstein was seriously injured Sept. 19, in the crash of a Learjet 60 plane in Columbia, S.C. The crash killed four people and injured Travis Barker, a musician and former drummer of the group Blink-182, with whom Mr. Goldstein frequently appeared. On Friday night, throngs of friends and fans gathered outside Mr. Goldstein’s apartment building at 210 Lafayette Street. Many described him as a friendly and approachable man who was serious about his music and who always stopped to talk to fans who recognized him. Mr. Goldstein regularly posted messages on Twitter, including one final, poetic note — lyrics from a Grandmaster Flash song — that he posted on Tuesday.

“New York, New York. Big city of dreams, but everything in New York ain’t always what it seems.”

Jackson's 'Missing' Doctor To Speak To Police

Sky News- The doctor who was with Michael Jackson when he suffered a heart attack at his home in Los Angeles has returned to the city, say reports.

Celebrity website Tmz.com says Dr Conrad Murray is preparing to speak to police investigating the star's death.

Officials were reportedly keen to interview him after Jackson's family suggested he died because of a drug overdose.

Tmz.com said Jackson had been receiving a daily injection of Demerol, a synthetic narcotic similar to morphine, and may have been given "too much" on Thursday.

Dr Murray lived with the singer and administered his injections but police were initially unable to trace him, Tmz reported.

Following his cardiac arrest, the self-proclaimed King of Pop was taken to the UCLA medical centre where he was pronounced dead. He was 50.

A recording of the 911 emergency call has shown Jackson was not breathing or responding to CPR when it was made.

The caller said he needed an ambulance "as soon as possible" and only the star's personal doctor was with him when he fell ill.

During the call to the Los Angeles Fire Department the man said: "Sir, we have a gentleman here that needs help and he's not breathing.

"He's not breathing and we're trying to pump him, but he's not ... he's not breathing. He's not conscious, sir."

Jackson's body was flown by helicopter from the hospital to the LA coroner's office for a post-mortem examination.

It is reportedly being performed by Dr Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, who was a star witness in the O.J. Simpson trial.

Brian Oxman, a lawyer for the Jackson family, said the singer's relatives had been concerned about his health for some time.

"Michael appeared at rehearsals a couple of times, he was very seriously trying to be able to do those rehearsals," he said.

"His use of medications had gotten in the way. His injuries which he had sustained performing, where he had broken a vertebra and he had broken his leg from a fall on the stage, were getting in the way."