Mastic Beach man at center of drug case controversy re-arrested

A Mastic Beach man at the center of a drug case that ignited a war of words between the Suffolk County Police Department and the district attorney’s office was rearrested Saturday morning on a lesser felony charge, three days after the original charge was dropped.

Corey Robinson, 24, turned himself in to the police department’s Seventh Precinct in Shirley early Saturday on a charge of fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, Assistant Commissioner Justin Meyers said. The arrest was made in consultation with the district attorney’s office, Meyers said.

“The charge the defendant was arraigned on today is the appropriate charge supported by the evidence prosecutors now have,” said Robert Clifford, spokesman for the district attorney’s office. He declined to elaborate.

Robinson was released on his own recognizance at his arraignment Saturday in Central Islip. His attorney could not be immediately reached.

Police and prosecutors have disagreed over the contents of the two one-pound bags of white powder since after they were intercepted by federal authorities at Kennedy Airport en route from Hong Kong to Robinson’s home.

The powder has been tested multiple times and yielded differing results. Prosecutors said a Suffolk lab test showed no illegal drugs, while police said a test performed by a U.S. Customs and Border Control lab found a fentanyl analog and a controlled substance.

Suffolk Chief of Detectives Gerard Gigante said Saturday the district attorney’s office “agreed that it’s a controlled substance and agreed they would prosecute the case as is” after the police department submitted the written report from the federal lab and asked the district attorney’s office to re-charge Robinson. No further testing will be done, Gigante said.

Robinson was first arrested Oct. 27 and charged with first-degree possession of a controlled substance, which police had referred to as the deadly drug fentanyl — an opioid more potent than heroin.

Suffolk Police Commissioner Timothy Sini, a Democratic candidate for district attorney in Tuesday’s election and vocal critic of District Attorney Thomas Spota, held a news conference to announce Robinson’s arrest, saying he has received “over 1.1 million doses of fentanyl” in a shipment from China.

Prosecutors said that was false, pointing to the lab test discrepancies.

The charges against Robinson were dropped Wednesday when a prosecutor told a judge that Suffolk crime lab testing found the substance was not illegal drugs.

Police also said that Spota — who was indicted last month on charges including obstruction of justice for an alleged coverup of a beating of a suspect by former Police Chief James Burke — was letting politics cloud the case. Spota has pleaded not guilty and has said he is resigning from his post.

Police said the district attorney’s office had guided them on which charges to file, as they do in all cases, and it was highly unusual for prosecutors to ask for an active case to be dismissed. Police officials argued, based on earlier lab testing performed by federal authorities, that the substance was a fentanyl analog, which has a slightly different chemical structure, but similar effects.

With Mark Morales

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.