The defense attorney for former Richmond County Deputy Demondre Mahoney says investigators claimed a field test showed fentanyl inside the county jail but never turned that test over to the defense, even as Mahoney was denied bond and jailed for months before the substance was later confirmed to be baby powder.
“(They) claimed a field test — never actually included in discovery,” attorney Samuel Emas said. “We still haven’t gotten a response on the field test.”
Mahoney was arrested in June 2023 and charged with bringing fentanyl into the Charles B. Webster Detention Center, allegations that ultimately collapsed after lab testing showed the substance was baby powder. A Superior Court judge dismissed the case in December 2023 after prosecutors said they could not prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Emas said there was also no documentation supporting early claims that an office had physical reactions to the substance.
“There’s nothing — no medical records — of an officer’s supposed reaction to baby powder,” Emas said.
Despite the absence of that evidence, Emas said Mahoney’s bond was denied multiple times while prosecutors continued to rely on what were described as positive test results.
“Despite that, they denied him bond and put him in the very jail where he was working,” Emas said.
Mahoney remained jailed for about five months and only received bond after the lab results came back confirming the substance was not a controlled drug, Emas said. An earlier report of a 10-month jail stay was erroneous, the attorney said.
Even after the test showed it was baby powder, Emas said the state continued pressing Mahoney to plead guilty.
“They still wanted him to plead guilty,” Emas said. “We filed a statutory speedy trial.”
As the criminal case unfolded, Emas said Mahoney was also dealing with eviction proceedings involving the Section 8 housing where his fiancée and infant child were living. The eviction, he said, was initiated based on Mahoney’s arrest.
“He was getting hammered from every angle,” Emas said. “He got arrested, he got thrown in jail, he got bond denied twice, and they tried to evict him from a house he wasn’t even living in — but his fiancée and child were.”
When Mahoney was not transported from jail to the eviction hearing, a default judgment was entered. Emas said he appealed the ruling and ultimately had it reversed.
Mahoney has said he was wrongly arrested for a crime he did not commit. He was later hired this year by the Wrens Police Department, long after the charges were dismissed.
Emas said he is not discussing any potential civil litigation but maintains the criminal case should never have reached the point it did.
“He was wrongly arrested for a crime he didn’t commit,” Emas said.
