Crime & Safety

Man Arrested For Drugs Had A Thousand Excuses, Sparta Police Say

Police called him a "man of a thousand excuses" after he tried to talk his way out of being arrested, police said.

SPARTA, NJ — A New York man was arrested in Sparta on multiple drug charges last week— but first, he gave police "a thousand excuses," Sparta Lt. John Lamon said.

Derrick Dorner, 30, of Brooklyn, New York, was arrested on Dec. 27 in Sparta after police found multiple types of drugs in his car, Lamon said. During the arrest, Dorner allegedly gave a false name and continuously tried to talk his way out of being arrested.

Two residents called 911 to report a man in a car on Scudders Road around 1 p.m.; the first call said the man was sleeping, and the second said the man threw an object out of the window. Police stopped the car, a Mercedez Benz with a temporary New Jersey registration, and found that the registration was linked to a Dodge Journey SUV.

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Sparta Cpl. Richard Smith went to speak to Dorner, when police say he gave his first excuse, unprompted, saying, “I’m not doing nothing wrong, I’m going to tell you what happened, I’m gay, my boyfriend called me here, I don’t know if someone called you."

Dorner told police he was only five minutes from where he needed to be, Lamon said. Smith asked about the mismatched registration, and Dorner allegedly told police his father bought him the car, and he didn't know about the discrepancy.

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Dorner allegedly gave Smith a drivers license with the name "David Forman" on it. Lamon said Dorner told Smith it was "of course" a good drivers license.

After smelling marijuana, police searched the car and allegedly found a glass pipe, a partially smoked marijuana cigarette, a glass jar containing marijuana, a credit card reader/writer encoder, three bank checks endorsed to different people, a black headphone case that contained multiple white jeweler envelopes that contained a white crystal substance (suspect methamphetamine), a ziplock baggie containing the same white crystal substance, a scale, numerous small ziplocks, and three credit cards bearing different names.

Inside the locked glove compartment, police say they found a plastic gun with the orange tip removed so it looked real, a locked bank bag with narcotics, and $1,330 in cash.

Police also say they found a "brown glass jar contained an unknown liquid substance," which was sent to a state police lab for testing.

"When asked about the white crystal substance, Mr. Forman, again had an answer— it was bath salts from the Red Sea in Israel and it was a spiritual thing because his boyfriend was Jewish," Lamon said.

The excuses weren't enough: Dorner was arrested and charged with multiple counts, including drug possession, intent to distribute drugs, possessing a credit card in someone else's name, and two warrants. He was taken to Keogh Dwyer Correctional Facility.


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