Drug-related charges against senior Eric Halperin were dropped Monday.
Halperin was arrested and charged with trafficking marijuana and possession of marijuana with the intent to sell Feb. 27 after signing for a package that contained 27 pounds of marijuana at his current residence at 1026 W. Trinity Ave.
"I was really relieved and felt vindicated," he said. "Now we just want to make sure my name is clear with the right sources."
This is the second incident in a year in which drug-related charges were leveled against a Duke student and subsequently dropped.
Durham Police Department officials declined to comment on the case. Duke University Police Department Maj. Gloria Graham said she has not spoken with DPD officers recently and has not heard about charges being dropped.
At the time of the arrest, Halperin was home with seniors Matt Goldman, Joe Clark, Blake Rose and Victoria Woodbury, who is not a resident of the house. Those present said the arrest was a "traumatic" event.
"It was absolutely absurd how [DPD officers] treated me," Halperin said. "They paid me no respect."
When a DHL delivery man came to the door, Halperin signed for the package, which he said was addressed to Amy Bradshaw from Keystone Electronics in Illinois, and put it down by the door. He noted that because the house is leased to different tenants every year, he receives a lot of mail not addressed to current residents.
Five minutes later, there were "screams" and "banging" on the front door, the seniors said.
"My knee-jerk reaction was: 'Someone is trying to break in,' and [I] started to run to the back of our house," said Goldman, who was downstairs with Halperin at the time of the arrest.
Around seven DPD Selective Enforcement Team officers came into the house, followed by 10 to 15 regularly uniformed officers, who ordered the students to get on the ground, Halperin said.
Clark, who was upstairs in his room, said when he opened his door to check what was going on, he found a rifle pointed at his face.
"It looked like a war inside the house," Halperin said, noting that the house sustained approximately $1,000 worth of damages, including broken doors, shelves and glass.
Clark and Goldman said the force used was unnecessary.
"It was actually pretty ridiculous," Goldman said. "Just unbelievable. They were just pointing assault rifles at our heads."
Residents declined to comment on whether or not they will press charges in the future.
In a Feb. 28 statement DPD's Public Information Officer Kammie Michael said it was "standard procedure" for SET officers to be present at "drug raids for safety reasons."
"At some point, [the officers] knew they were staring at innocent kids, hopelessly unarmed," said Durham attorney Bob Ekstrand, Law '98 and a lecturing fellow at the School of Law. "I want police to be protective and cautious, always.... But there was no indication that any of [the students] were armed."
Ekstrand did not represent the students when charges were filed. He did, however, offer advice to the students at the request of a resident's mother.
Halperin, Goldman and Clark said they were taken to the back of the house separately and asked to strip naked.
"They wanted to make sure we weren't hiding drugs in any body cavities," Goldman said.
The five students were handcuffed and placed on the couch as officers searched the house. Halperin said he believes DPD officers were looking for drug paraphernalia. According to DPD's incident/investigation report, cigarette papers and a box label were seized from the property.
Clark said at one point he told an officer he would stake his life that Halperin is innocent.
"[The officer] said, 'Well, you'll be dead tomorrow,'" Clark recalled.
Halperin was arrested and driven to the police station. He was forced to sit on the floor of the police vehicle with hands handcuffed behind his back for the duration of the ride.
Once at the station, Halperin said he was taken into an interrogation room, and although his lawyer Bill Thomas arrived at the station as well, they were not allowed to meet. The senior was eventually taken to the county jail through a back door.
He was released on a $25,000 bond Feb. 27 from the Durham County Jail.
Thomas, who has previously worked on a similar case, assured Halperin that DPD did not have any evidence against him, Halperin said. Thomas could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
"They just wanted to arrest someone, maybe to make themselves look better," Halperin said. "I was worried because I don't trust the Durham justice system after [former Durham district attorney Mike] Nifong."
The night of the arrest, the six other students living at the residence were advised by Ekstrand to stay away from the house for fear that someone else would be arrested and brought to DPD for questioning.
"I had no idea what the police were going to do," he said. "I thought that certainly, if the police thought the package was supposed to go to this house that they would at least want to ask more questions."
Ekstrand met with the housemates approximately four hours after the arrest was made and informed the seniors that DPD did not believe Halperin was at fault.
"But for some reason they still were suspicious that someone else in the house ordered this package of drugs," Goldman said.
Ekstrand said he was informed Feb. 28 that no one else would be charged and no residents were approached by DPD officers again.
DPD officers never returned to the house, the seniors said.
The Trinity Avenue residents said Duke administrators were "shockingly" supportive.
"The University acted correctly," Halperin said, noting that he met with Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, the day of and the day after his arrest. He added that Moneta informed him of the University's support and that the arrest would not affect his graduation date.
Other residents said they were also contacted by Student Affairs officials the day of the arrest.
Halperin was not suspended by Duke during the investigation, even though he had been charged with a felony.
Director of Judicial Affairs Stephen Bryan declined to comment on the case.
"As far as I'm concerned, [Halperin is] innocent until proven guilty, and we needed to respond on that premise," Moneta said. "We've been supporting Eric through this process, and we're thrilled the charges were dropped."
Goldman said administrators acted differently than they had in the past, citing the arrest of a junior last year and the Duke lacrosse case as previous examples.
Last year, the charged student was suspended immediately after he was arrested for signing a package containing 17 pounds of marijuana April 3, 2007. All charges were dropped April 16, 2007 because of insufficient evidence.
"[The cases] may appear similar, but from the police's perspective, they would treat them as independent cases," Moneta said.
Both Halperin and the student arrested last year are members of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, but Halperin said he believes the similarity is a coincidence.
Halperin noted that the national chapter of ATO requested that he be suspended from the fraternity following the arrest, but current President Peter Allen, a junior, vouched for Halperin's innocence and did not suspend him.
"The fact that this thing can happen twice in a year shows that someone is clearly at fault," Goldman said. "I'm suspicious. There's something going on at DHL and Durham police. Who the hell knows what they're doing."
Graham said she does not believe Duke students are being targeted.
"I'm sure we will look into the specifics of the case, investigate the similarities of the situations," she said. "In situations like this, we never know what warrants charges being dropped."
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