Noreaga
will have a drug possession charge against him dismissed if he
can stay out of trouble for the next 12 months, a New York criminal
court judge said this past Monday (Dec. 27). The decision handed
down by Judge Robert Racite comes on the heels of Noreaga’s arrest
Sunday in Queens, N.Y., for allegedly smoking weed in a car with
four companions.
Noreaga pleaded not
guilty and this is what his lawyer Robert Kalina said: "Noreaga
was in the wrong place at the wrong time, in a public place, with
at least one other person doing something the law prohibits."
Police claim the men were passing a lit joint among themselves
in a new Mercedes Benz at the corner of 111th Street and 55th
Avenue, according to the formal complaint.
Police said they found
three baggies of marijuana in Noreaga’s sock. "It’s obvious
that five people can’t hold a marijuana cigarette at the same
time," Kalina also said. Nore’s case automatically will be
dismissed in a year if he isn’t arrested again.