09-29-2003 -- Anderson, Burless -- Indictment -- News Release

U.S. Attorney's Office Adopts Mercer County Case Against Trenton Man Arrested with Kilogram of Crack Cocaine

TRENTON - U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie, along with Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini, Jr., announced the federal Indictment and arraignment today of a major Trenton drug supplier on a charge resulting from his recent arrest for possession of more than a kilogram of crack cocaine.

The one-count Indictment charges Burless Anderson, 42, of Trenton, with possession of more than 50 grams of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute. Anderson, a City of Trenton Sanitation Division employee, was arraigned this morning before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler, who ordered the defendant to be detained without bail pending trial.

According to a previously filed federal Complaint, on Sept. 8 Anderson was observed by law enforcement officials leaving a location on N. Warren Street in Trenton with a black bag and then getting into a Lincoln Navigator. The Complaint states that Anderson drove to an intersection at Brunswick Avenue and Vine Street in Trenton, where a woman approached the vehicle and handed the defendant cash, and after reaching into the driver's side window quickly departed. Thereafter, according to the Complaint, Anderson drove to a doctor's office complex in Ewing Township. While Anderson was parked in the complex parking lot, a Trenton Police Officer approached the vehicle and saw a partially opened black plastic bag on the passenger seat which contained numerous clear plastic baggies containing an off-white rock-like substance, which later tested positive for cocaine. Anderson was placed under arrest.

The Complaint and the Indictment are available by contacting the U.S. Attorney's Office Public Affairs Office at either 856-757-5233 or 973-645-2888.

If convicted of the charge in the one-count Indictment, Anderson faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, with a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years, and a fine of $4 million.

Under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Judge Chesler would, upon conviction, determine the actual sentence based upon a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, as well as the defendant's criminal history, if any. Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Under Sentencing Guidelines, defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

An Indictment is a formal charge made by a grand jury, a body of 16 to 23 citizens. Grand jury proceedings are secret, and neither persons under investigation nor their attorneys have the right to be present.

Despite Indictment, every defendant is presumed innocent, unless and until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, following a trial at which the defendant has all of the trial rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

Christie credited Special Agents of the DEA's Camden Resident Office, under the direction of Special Agent in-Charge Mike Pasterchick, Jr. of the Newark Division; Police Officers of the Vice Enforcement Unit of the Trenton Police Department, under the direction of Police Director Joseph Santiago; Police Officers of the Ewing Township Police Department, under the Direction of Chief Robert A. Coulton, and Sheriff's Deputies of the Burlington County Sheriff's Department, under the direction of Sheriff Jane Stanfield, with developing the investigation which resulted in the federal Indictment.

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Thomas of the Criminal Division in Trenton.

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Defense Attorney: Kevin Main, Esq. Lawrenceville