MONMOUTH COUNTY – Two men have been arrested and charged for providing a Howell woman with the drugs that killed her, officials said.
On November 17, 2020, officers from the Howell Township Police Department responded to a home regarding a report of a possible drug overdose. They had found 35-year-old Katherine Hughes, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigation revealed that Hughes was communicating with Terrance R. Rose, 38, of Freehold Borough and Reginald A. Simeus, 42, of Howell, before her death. Investigation further revealed that Simeus had acquired the drugs from Rose before passing them along to Hughes prior to her death.
Rose and Simeus were both charged with first-degree Strict Liability for a Drug-Induced Death. Initially, they were charged with multiple drug-related charges out of South Amboy (Middlesex County) and Howell, respectively; those charges remain pending.
Last week, the Strict Liability charge was filed with Simeus being arrested without incident at his home on September 17 and Rose turning himself in to the Howell Township Police Department on September 20.
Simeus was later released on his own recognizance, while Rose was transported to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in Freehold, where he awaits a detention hearing that is scheduled for September 24.
Convictions on first-degree criminal charges are commonly punishable by terms of up to 20 years in state prison.
“During recent years, there has been a sea change in how law enforcement has approached substance abuse, shifting from a strategy built more on enforcement to one built more on compassion. But that compassion is reserved only for those fighting to turn their lives around – not for those who would literally trade those individuals’ lives for a modest financial gain,” Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey said. “We hope the charges being announced today send a clear message to that latter group, putting them on notice that such conduct will be met with the sharpest prosecutorial rebuke permissible under the law.”
Linskey praised the proactive, dedicated efforts of the Howell Township Police Department, members of whom worked in conjunction with detectives from the Prosecutor’s Office’s Narcotics and Criminal Enterprises Unit and Major Crimes Bureau.
Despite the charges referenced above, 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 State law.
