Erie fentanyl defendant wants charges dismissed again – News – GoErie.com

A judge already threw out the charges against Reo Adkins once. He is asking another judge to do so again.

An Erie man who has been charged for a second time with having heroin and fentanyl in a downtown hotel room in 2017 is again asking a judge to dismiss the charges against him.

Reo B. Adkins, 28, is arguing that the drug charges, which were refiled in December, violate his rights because the case has already been discharged. Adkins’ lawyer, Anthony Rodriques, filed a motion to have the refiled charges thrown out on Tuesday.

Erie County Judge Daniel Brabender scheduled a hearing on the request for April 15.

Erie police originally charged Adkins in the case in May 2017, after investigators said a housekeeper found a bag containing suspected drugs in a hotel room Adkins had rented at the Sheraton Erie Bayfront Hotel.

Testing determined that the bag, which was turned over to Erie police, held 17.84 grams of a heroin and fentanyl mixture and 12.05 grams of fentanyl, investigators said.

Then-Erie County Judge John Garhart threw out the case in February 2018 after Adkins’ lawyer at the time, Tony Logue, filed a motion to dismiss the case and suppress the evidence recovered from the bag.

Logue argued that police needed a warrant to search the bag because the housekeeper discovered it after a misunderstanding led her to believe Adkins had vacated the room. In fact, Adkins had paid to rent the room for an additional night.

Garhart, now a senior judge, agreed that police should have obtained a warrant to search the bag. Because Adkins had rented the room, police could not use the housekeeper’s discovery to justify a warrantless search of the bag, Garhart said.

After the case was dismissed, police obtained a warrant to search the bag and refiled the charges against Adkins in December. He now faces two felony counts of possession with intent to deliver and two misdemeanor counts of possession of drug paraphernalia.

He is being held in the Erie County Prison on $100,000 bond and is awaiting a March 25 preliminary hearing before Erie 1st Ward District Judge Sue Mack.

But Adkins’ lawyer, Rodriques, is arguing that Adkins’ second arrest violates his rights because the charges have already been thrown out previously. Brabender will weigh that argument, and hear from the Erie County District Attorney’s Office, at the April 15 hearing.

Madeleine O’Neill can be reached at 870-1728 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNoneill.