Upper Saddle River Man Offered 15 Years in Teen’s Drug Death
By Mary K. Miraglia
HACKENSACK, N.J. (March 3, 2017) — Movement has finally begun in the case of an Upper Saddle River man who distributed a lethal dose of drugs from a sneaker on his front porch three years ago.
Darius Ghahary, 47, was presented a formal plea offer Monday, March 3 by Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Thomas Kearney of the Homicide Unit. Co defendant Carey Kennedy also received an offer while Ghahary’s 24-year old daughter, Allyn Ghahary, may receive an offer after her father makes a decision to plead guilty or go to trial.
“It depends on what her father does,” Kearney told Attorney Weekly following the very brief hearing.
Ghahary was offered 15 years in state prison, against a possible 25 years to life sentence if convicted at a trial, for the fentanyl-induced death of Daniel Lajterman, a 19-year old graduate of Ramsey High School. According to courthouse sources, Lajterman was supposed to purchase heroin from Ghahary, who had a distribution system set up in the shoes on his porch. But whether by design or accident, Lajterman got the fentanyl-laced dose and died Feb. 23, 2014 after ingesting it.
Kennedy, who faces 5 – 10 years in state prison if convicted, was offered non-custodial probation if she pleads guilty.
Kearney said he is keeping the plea offers open for one week only, until this Friday, March 10. If the defendants don’t agree by then, the offer is off the table.
“There is intensive trial preparation, and this offer is not going to be open past next Friday,” Presiding Judge Susan J. Steele told the defendants. The defendants must answer by March 10, and will be back before Steele Monday, May 12, to decide pretrial issues.
Ghahary was arrested Feb. 24, 2014 along with his daughter Allyn, and Kennedy, 46, of Allendale. He was indicted with both women in June, 2015 and charged with first degree strict liability for Lajterman’s drug induced death, first degree conspiracy to manufacture and distribute drugs including fentanyl, oxycodone, methylone and other schedule I drugs, first degree maintenance of a drug production facility, and 12 other second, third and fourth degree offenses. The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office at the time said they also found large quantities of Xanax, Adderall, Hydromorphone, synthetic THC, steroids, MDMA (Molly), and marijuana in both powder and pill form in Ghahary’s house.
He was believed by investigators to have a regular drug distribution business in Bergen County for some time, they said. He was specifically charged with selling Lajterman Xanax, fentanyl and marijuana in the days before his death.
Kennedy is charged with first degree conspiracy to manufacture and distribute drugs and second degree conspiracy to maintain the Upper Saddle River drug mill on Hampshire Hill Road. Allyn Ghahary is charged with first degree conspiracy to manufacture and distribute drugs, and is specifically charged with hindering her father’s arrest by destroying electronic communications.
Ghahary is represented by criminal defense attorney Michael DeBliss of Bloomfield, and Allyn Ghahary’s lawyer is Robert Brass of Bloomfield. Kennedy’s attorney is Michael Orozco of Woodcliff Lake.
