Armed robbery charge dropped

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An Old Bethpage resident who was arrested and charged with armed robbery and drug possession in Lakeview earlier this year had the robbery charge dismissed and the possession charges reduced in First District Court last week.

Jermaine Jones, 21, was in Lakeview on March 28, visiting a friend, when, in another section of the hamlet, three other men pulled a gun on a Papa John’s pizza deliveryman. The men robbed the deliveryman of $160, took the pizza and ran.

Police searching for the criminals — with the deliveryman in their car — found Jones sitting in a car with a friend smoking marijuana. “The basis for pulling my client out of the car is that the police smelled marijuana,” said Jones’s lawyer, Leonard Issacs. Police also found Alprazolam, a generic form of Xanax, in the car during their search.

Jones was charged with robbery, criminal possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of marijuana. As he was being handcuffed, the deliveryman identified him as one of the men involved in the armed robbery.

Jones spent several days in prison before his family could pool enough money to post bail. Soon afterward, Issacs found several discrepancies in the facts of the case. Jones did not match the victim’s description of the robber. Jones is 5 feet 5, but the victim said he was 5 feet 9. Jones was wearing different clothes than those described by the victim. And an investigator received sworn statements from two men who said they were with Jones when the robbery occurred.

The deliveryman ultimately said he could not be sure that Jones was involved, and the robbery charge was dismissed. The drug charges were reduced to disorderly conduct.

“After an extensive investigation, it was determined that there was not enough evidence to sustain a robbery charge against the defendant,” Brendan Bosh, a press officer for the Nassau County district attorney’s office, said in a written statement.

The three assailants are still at large.