JURY INDICTS PARENTS IN SON'S OVERDOSE DEATH

Prosecutor says Lebanon Township pair failed to try to prevent his death.

FLEMINGTON -- A Lebanon Township teen's parents and three of his friends
will face charges stemming from his July 2001 drug overdose death, a
Hunterdon County grand jury decided Tuesday.

Leonardo DiPasquale, 18, died July 7, 2001, at his parents' home after he
took a cocktail of heroin and Xanax, a prescription drug used to treat
anxiety. An autopsy showed DiPasquale died of a heroin overdose.

A seven-month investigation led authorities to three friends who allegedly
provided the drugs DiPasquale took before his death.

Erica L. Poch, 18, of Clinton and Christine M. Curtin, 21, of High Bridge
were charged in February under the New Jersey law that holds drug
distributors strictly liable for drug-induced deaths. Also charged with
drug distribution in February was James W. Bowkley, 46, of Califon.

The grand jury on Tuesday affirmed the state's case against Poch, Curtin
and Bowkley. It also returned indictments for DiPasquale's parents, Mary
and Lewis Hockenbury of 645 Winding Brook Road in Lebanon Township.

Mary and Lewis Hockenbury face one count of reckless manslaughter. Acting
Hunterdon County Prosecutor Steven Lember said Wednesday that DiPasquale's
parents failed to take action that would have prevented his death.

"The theory is that the Hockenburys were well aware that their son was in
the throes of a heroin overdose," Lember said. "Knowing that, they should
have taken steps that reasonable parents would have taken under those
circumstances, and our allegation is that they did not."

The Hockenburys have not been arrested but will receive summonses to appear
in court, Assistant Hunterdon County Prosecutor Katherine Errickson said.

Lember said Wednesday the indictment against the Hockenburys is remarkable
because the grand jury decided on its own to extend charges in the teen's
death to his parents.

Authorities say the night before DiPasquale's death, Poch, Curtin and
DiPasquale gave Bowkley a ride to his home. During the ride, Bowkley gave
DiPasquale some Xanax pills, authorities allege.

After leaving Bowkley at his home, the three headed to Plainfield, N.J.,
where Curtin and Poch bought heroin from a dealer they knew. Authorities
allege the women gave the heroin to DiPasquale.

That evening, DiPasquale lost consciousness and Poch and Curtin took him to
his parents' Winding Brook Road home and left him there. A relative found
DiPasquale the next morning and called paramedics, but DiPasquale later was
pronounced dead at the scene.

Poch and Curtin were indicted Tuesday on one count each of first- degree
strict liability for a drug-induced death, second-degree manslaughter and
third-degree distribution of a controlled dangerous substance. Curtin is
free on $50,000 bail. Poch is lodged in Hunterdon County Jail.

Bowkley was indicted on one count of third-degree distribution of a
controlled dangerous substance. He is free on his own recognizance.

The strict liability charge is equivalent to a first-degree manslaughter
charge and carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. The second-degree
manslaughter charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

If convicted on the strict liability and manslaughter counts, Poch, Curtin
and the Hockenburys would be required to serve 85 percent of their
sentences before becoming eligible for parole.

DiPasquale was one of three people charged in the fatal heroin overdose of
16-year-old Gregory Baltz. The High Bridge boy died after taking heroin at
his home Jan. 5, 2001.

Kelly Jean Dixon, 19, of High Bridge pleaded guilty to drug distribution
charges and was sentenced in June to three years' probation and ordered to
seek long-term drug addiction treatment. Brandon Winters, 20, of Pohatcong
Township pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and was sentenced to
seven years in prison earlier this year. DiPasquale was facing charges of
possession with intent to distribute.

Errickson said DiPasquale's and Baltz's deaths are not directly related
although some of the people charged in the deaths know each other.

"I don't know that they were childhood friends, but they were a group of
people who were using heroin up there and unfortunately two of them ended
up dying," she said.