NOWHERE BUT CVP: A Mahwah man originally accused of putting what turned out to be a fatal dose of heroin into the hands of a 20-year-old Rockland County man was indicted by a Bergen County grand jury this week on manslaughter charges, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.
Three weeks after Harris Apfelbaum was found dead in Park Ridge on Oct. 3, a Mahwah patrol officer stopped Uldis Mende for a traffic violation and found him carrying 70 decks of heroin intended for sale, records show.
Investigators from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office discovered that Mende, a Latvian national, helped Apfelbaum get the heroin that killed him from a dealer in Paterson, law enforcement sources told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
The grand jury indictment secured earlier this week by Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer accuses Mende of “causing the death” of Apfelbaum, “who died as a result of ingesting the drug.”
Mende, who turned 21 on New Year’s Day, is now being held without bail in the Bergen County Jail, due to a detainer filed by federal authorities. He’s likely to be deported once the case against him in Apfelbaum’s death is concluded.
The indictment charges him with:
- strict liability for a drug-induced death;
- manslaughter;
- drug distribution and drug possession (for the Mahwah motor vehicle stop).