The state appellate court sided with Korey Reeves, 23, of Glassboro, on his appeal vacating a 2013 drug dealing conviction connected to an Edison arrest.
EDISON -- A 23-year-old convict accused of selling heroin in Middlesex County could have his drug charges tossed after an appeals court ruled Edison officers showed "flagrant police misconduct" during the search that led to his arrest.
Korey Reeves, 23, of Glassboro The state appellate court sided with Korey Reeves on March 1 and overturned a 2013 drug dealing conviction.
The appeals court determined Edison police conducted a warrantless search in which officers entered a local hotel room and arrested Reeves for the second time on drug distribution charges in two years.
The drug case now goes back to the Middlesex County Superior Court, according to attorney Richard Sparaco who handled the appeal. Without the search evidence, the case could fall apart, Sparaco said.
Without "evidence to present, they will likely dismiss the charges," Sparaco said.
The prosecutor's office will not appeal the ruling, according to spokesman James O'Neill. It was unclear if the office would prosecute Reeves on the charges again.
"We respect the Appellate Division ruling, but we disagree with their conclusion and stand by our officers' actions," Edison Police Chief Thomas Bryan said in a statement.
The ruling also said the Glassboro man's consecutive 18-month and two five-year prison sentences were excessive for violating parole two years ago, since the sentence was based on an overturned conviction.
Reeves will be resentenced on the third-degree credit card fraud and fourth-degree conspiracy convictions, Sparaco said. No date has been set.
Reeves' struck a deal with Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office consolidating three grand jury indictments -- one in connection to a 2012 burglary, and two on drug distribution charges from 2012 and 2013 -- and pleaded guilty to three of the 10 charges, according to court records.
He was sentenced in July 2014 to five years probation and 180 days time served in jail, for credit card fraud, intent to distribute a controlled substance and possession, records show. The next month, Reeves appealed a judge's pretrial decision to allow evidence found in his hotel room without a warrant during his drug arrest, according to the ruling.
Reeves was sentenced to 11 1/2 years in prison on the charges after violating parole in 2015. He was released in August 2015 after six months in prison. The details of the parole violation were not available.
The search cited in the appeals court ruling occurred on April 30, 2013, after Edison police Sgt. Michael Mintchwarner started to watch the Lexington Inn Hotel -- now a Quality Inn.
Mintchwarner had got a tip from a confidential information that led him to the Route 1 hotel parking lot, where he saw a car belonging to Reeves' housemate, according to the court document.
Mintchwarner said he had on multiple sources that Reeves had been selling heroin in Edison and Woodbridge, according to the officer's affidavit detailed in the ruling.
Later that night, Mintchwarner said he watched an "unkempt" man ride his bicycle to the hotel, enter and leave five minutes later. Police stopped the man and found few bundles of heroin he tossed during a brief chase, according to police.
The man told officers he went to the hotel to purchase a brick of heroin from Reeves and Officer Christian Pedana returned to the hotel to ask the clerk who was staying in room 253.
The clerk identified Reeves and brought the officers to a hotel room with a similar layout so they could plan the arrest. Mintchwarner, along with Pedana, Officer Christopher Teleposky and Officer Timothy Farrell, then went to the hotel room carrying a key, a pry bar and a shield.
After knocking twice and identifying themselves as Edison police, the officers said they heard a "click" from the door locking.
Mintchwarner told one of the officers, "Put the key in, we have to go in. We've been compromised."
The Edison cops then arrested Reeves and his brother, Kyle, and conducted a "protective sweep" of the room, which included searching Reeves' wallet. Officers found $2,200 in small bills and 890 bundles of heroin, wrapped in paper similar to what Straub was carrying, according to the ruling.
The two-judge appeals court ruled the search was illegal citing the officer's detailed planning to enter the room, including bringing a crowbar and shield for potential use, without considering the need or attempting to obtain a warrant.
"Stated simply, as we have held, the officers had probable cause to believe that illegal activity was occurring in the hotel room prior to their entry," the ruling says. "Yet, they made the decision not to seek a warrant; a plain and unmistakable indicator of their state of mind."
Kyle Reeves was released from prison on March 9 on the Middlesex conviction, as well as a drug conviction in Essex County.
Craig McCarthy may be reached at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig and on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.