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Kenard Gowdy, 47, of Florida told Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Roma today that he was smoking pot with friends in his former apartment when police busted in on July 13, 2012.
Gowdy, who admitted trying to flush more than an ounce down the toilet, pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute the drug.
Police were there to arrest Hakeem Chance and Dammen McDuffie for a series of burglaries, as part of an initiative headed by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office to take break-in teams from Englewood, Teaneck and Hackensack off the street.
Gowdy apparently was unaware that his neighbors are career burglars well-known to law enforcement authorities, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor David Calviello said in court in Hackensack today.
Both are under indictment together in Bergen County on offenses ranging from burglary to assaulting police, while Chance is also named in a separate indictment on burglary, drug and weapons charges.
McDuffie, whose records stretches back to 1993, has been free since posting $400,000 bail in February, following their arrests a month before. Chance remains held on more than $500,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail.
The 20-count indictment against Chance and McDuffie carries 20 counts in Bergen, Passaic, Essex and Morris counties for various crimes of burglary, breaking and entering, eluding police, and assaulting police officers — including a Bergen County Prosecutor’s investigator — as well as for possession of marijuana and hashish.
Roma set an Oct. 11 sentencing date for Gowdy, who also will have his driving privileges suspended in New Jersey. This “may also affect your Florida driver’s license,” Roma told Gowdy, who remains free on $50,000 bail until the sentencing.
STORY / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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