New Jersey Fugitive Nabbed During I-78 Stop, Police Say

This post was reported and written by Jack Tobias.

An Easton man who at first gave police a false identity during an Interstate 78 traffic stop is a fugitive from justice out of New Jersey who had heroin as well as pain and anti-anxiety pills, court records say.

Lamar Darnell Massey, 36, is wanted on a June 2010 arrest warrant out of Plainfield, N.J., for a “family offense” and an April 2012 arrest warrant out of Newark, N.J., on suspected “cruelty toward child,” the records say.

According to court records, after police stopped Massey Friday night on westbound I-78 in Williams Township, they found the following in a jacket pocket:

• Four glassine bags of heroin. The bags were stamped “Superman.”

• Three glassine bags of marijuana.

• Thirty-two pills of the painkiller Oxycodone.

• Forty-two pills—each 2 mg—of the anti-anxiety medication Alpraxolam, also known as Xanax.

The lead sheet of Massey’s criminal complaint lists an address of 604 Northampton St. in the city. Another address—1734 Chew St., Allentown—is listed elsewhere in his file.

The Chew Street address is that of Oxford House, a group home described on its website as providing “self-help for sobriety without relapse.”

According to a criminal complaint filed by Trooper Michael Kalinchock of state police at Belfast:

• Police stopped Massey’s car—a green 2006 Dodge Stratus with New Jersey license plates—shortly after 9 Friday night because the lamp that is supposed to illuminate the license plate was not working.

• Massey at first identified himself as “Shakaur Best” with a date of birth of Aug. 13, 1976 and provided what turned out to be a false driver’s license number out of Florida. But after police questioning he admitted to his real identity and date of birth, Sept. 2, 1976.

• Police then discovered the outstanding arrest warrants out of Plainfield and Newark. And they discovered the heroin, marijuana and pills.

Massey was charged with several counts under the controlled substance act for the heroin, marijuana and glassine bags; false identification to law enforcement authority; driving without a license, and a charge of “unlawful activities” for the license plate lamp that wasn’t working.

He was arraigned Saturday by on-duty District Judge John Capobianco of Nazareth and committed to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $20,000 bail.