Lawyer: Drugs hidden under baby not defendant's
Toolbox
By Brent Curtis Herald Staff - Published: January 9, 2009
A New York man answered to a charge Thursday of possessing crack cocaine — but a defense attorney argued in court that the drugs belonged to a woman at the scene because the baggie was found under her baby.
Twenty-two-year-old Sean L. Kurg — also known as Robert Boyd, according to prosecutors — pleaded innocent in Rutland District Court to a felony charge of possessing almost 14 grams of crack cocaine.
City police arrested Kurg, who lives in West Sand Lake, N.Y., after they found the crack on the bed of a hotel room that Kurg was in on Wednesday. Judge Thomas Zonay ordered Kurg held on $100,000 bail.
But Kurg's defense attorney, Mary Kay Lanthier, argued during the hearing that the illegal drugs didn't belong to her client but instead belonged to Alicia Richards, 20, whom police said lives in the Schenectady, N.Y., area.
The raid on Wednesday was carried out in a room at the Comfort Inn where Richards, not Kurg, was staying, according to a police affidavit.
In that affidavit, city police Cpl. John Johnson wrote that after the drugs were found during a search of the room, Richards told police that she saw Kurg, who she said went by nicknames including "light" and "Jay," buying and selling crack in her hotel room, in a room at the Rodeway Inn and at the Wendy's restaurant in the city.
But Lanthier said Richards' remarks weren't credible because the drugs were found in her room and were hidden beneath her 7-month-old baby girl.
"The drugs were under her baby so it's our position that the drugs in the hotel room were hers," Lanthier said.
But Zonay said the arguments Lanthier made, while potentially valid, couldn't be settled at an arraignment hearing.
"The credibility issues can't be determined today by the court based on the available evidence," the judge said before setting bail.
If convicted, Kurg faces up to five years in jail and a $100,000 fine.
Contact Brent Curtis at brent. curtis@rutlandherald.com.
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