Expelled Student Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges

, by Gabe Rosenberg, Executive Editor

Zachary Kramer entered a plea deal today in connection to the Molly/MDMA-related poisonings last February.

After being expelled from the University in April, Zachary Kramer pleaded guilty Thursday in a New Haven court to federal charges that carry a minimum of 12 months in prison, according to the Associated Press. He will be officially sentenced on Feb. 10.

Kramer was arrested in March in connection with a string of drug-related hospitalizations on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015. The hospitalizations were caused by ingestion of what the students believed was the synthetic party drug Molly/MDMA.

Those drugs were later found by investigators to include an MDMA substitute and the substance AB Fubinaca. Four other students were arrested and expelled.

As part of a deal with prosecutors, Kramer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess and distribute MDMA and synthetic marijuana. Prosecutors recommend a sentence of 12-18 months.

“It was the right thing to do,” Kramer’s lawyer, William Dow III, said to the Associated Press about the guilty plea. “We’re looking forward to the day of sentencing where we can show the judge how much this young man has progressed since these events occurred. He’s matured. He’s got better judgment.”

One other expelled student, Eric Lonergan, faces federal charges in connection to the same incident. He is expected to similarly enter a guilty plea on Nov. 23.

According to the New Haven Register, Lonergan is accused of selling MDMA from his dorm room for around $200 per gram, beginning in November 2013. He allegedly provided drugs to students at a party in September 2014, leading to a string of hospitalizations.

Kramer allegedly replaced Lonergan as the primary supplier of MDMA on campus in December 2014.

On Oct. 31 this year, a Wesleyan sophomore was hospitalized after taking MDMA. They were discharged on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

“We have witnessed first hand, and several times now, the dangers of ingesting these substances,” wrote Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Whaley in an email to The Argus this month. “As one rarely knows what is actually in these capsules, it seems quite a risky proposition. Thankfully, most Wesleyan students make safer and healthier choices.”

  • Channing Montgomery

    Another white drug dealing punk. I wonder why you all in the media are not as merciless to him, as you would be if he were Black? Is Zachary Kramer the product of a broken home, poor schooling, and a super liberal state?

    • ThisGuy

      What are you referencing? I can’t think of a single young black drug dealer that was covered by the media… This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with timing. This originally happened when Wesleyan was under a lot of national scrutiny and the arrest of these kids made national news. Why must you try to make everything about race? Are you so racist against white people that you cant read this story without somehow tying your prejudice into it? Truly unbelievable.

      • Channing Montgomery

        Then clearly you must be living on another planet. The NYT has no problem showing a Black Mayor (Marion Barry) on its front page smoking a crack pipe during a drug bust/sting. No single Black drug dealer covered by the media? How about Rayful Edmonds, Nicky Barnes, Frank Lucas for size. Maybe you’re high in a meth lab with other Caucasians which is why you cannot see what i am talking about.

      • Anonymous

        I’m pretty sure we are living on a different planet from you. Back on your home planet perhaps it isn’t newsworthy if the mayor of Washington DC gets caught on video smoking crack, but most news outlets around here considered that a big deal. Perhaps your telescope went out of adjustment since then, as you apparently missed the drug-addled mayor of Toronto getting similar attention in the press.

      • Channing Montgomery

        Did the NYT put the mayor of Toronto on its front pages smoking crack, or weed, or do they reserve such space for Black politicians?

      • Anonymous

        I don’t believe such a picture of Marion Barry ever appeared on the front page of the NYT, but regardless, you’re moving the goalposts. You were trying to make the attention he got into something racial, it’s clear from the treatment of Rob Ford that it was not.

      • Channing Montgomery

        “You don’t believe” is a belief statement and not a statement of fact. If, it did not appear on the front pages of the NYT, then prove it.

        Yeah, do a Goggle image search of “Marion Barry Smoking Crack” and see for yourself how many leading American television and newspapers come back with searches and pictures. Where are your Rob Ford pictures of him smoking crack?

        Amerikkka is a racist country, whether you want to delude something into thinking that it is not.

        If Zachary Kramer, was Black as opposed to White and Jewish, all of America would know his name. In fact, Anderson Cooper would have been broadcasting live for a week from Middleton, CT, if a Black collegian sold fake smack out of his dorm room that poisoned and nearly killed a handful of students. Yeah, CNN would have been camped out of Zach Kramer Bethesda, Maryland home, trying to interview and get a statement from his parents, if he was Black. But you know what, didn’t even bother, let alone try to embarrass his parents, because upper middle class, nuclear Brady bunch families from rich zip codes, don’t get embarrassed when their children end up violating the law.

        It gets some attention, but not really a lot of attention, because “good” White kids from Montgomery County, Maryland (one of the richest counties in Amerikkka) don’t sell drugs, or, at least that’s the fairy tale white corporate media likes to delude White people like yourself into believing. Only “bad” Black/Brown kids sell drugs, so many of you like to believe.

        Don’t want to believe it — where are all your meth lab stories in the press, with pale, ashen White people doped out?

        Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Zero Tolerance Policy, Mr. Broken Windows, Harvard educated daughter was busted and convicted of shop lifting. How many reporters harangued Rudy about his daughter’s indiscretions? Rudy who made a career of throwing people in jail, daughter had a deal cut where she stayed out of jail. You did not hear him say squat about being tough “broken windows, and zero tolerance” when it came to his daughter. Just get tough with and on Black kids who foot fault with the law.

        Do you think if Malia Obama was caught and convicted of shoplifting; not one member of the WDC press corp would ask Barack Obama a question about it, let alone try to embarrass him about it?

        Yeah, my notions of “race, and racial constructs” are all in my head.

      • Anonymous

        It’s always easier to argue against points you’ve made up than the ones I’ve actually made. And if you make a specific claim like Barry on the cover of NYT, the onus is on you to back it up. You said it happened, it did not. Finally, faced with the undeniable fact that there are dozens of embarrassing pictures and videos of Rob Ford published all over, you try to shift the discussion to new points. The only thing consistent is your certainty that you’re right, ignoring all evidence to the contrary.

      • Channing Montgomery

        You go from making a belief statement to a statement of certitude. “It didn’t happen, because (I the mighty White man) said that it didn’t (facts be damned)”

      • Anonymous

        “The mighty white man”. Love it! I already asked you to produce the facts on your NYT claim, you have none to damn.

      • Channing Montgomery

        January 1990 look for your self

      • Channing Montgomery

        We’ll see Satan on February 10, 2016 whether the judge throws the book at Zachary Kramer or whether they give him a slap on the wrist. Do you think that if a African-American Wesleyan student was the proximate cause of the hospitalization of a half dozen Caucasians, that he would be working around, and out on bail? His a–, would be in prison awaiting trial and awaiting sentencing. But hey, Amerikkka is not a racist country right? How many stories on 60 Minutes have you seen focusing on pale, ashen White meth lab babies? White people walking around doped out, and the White Corporate media conceals it.

      • Channing Montgomery

        Why everything about race? Maybe, just maybe this is a racist society. How many white women you know get dragged out of their cars by police, let alone Black police, and then are found hanging in their jail cells (yeah suicide)?

      • Channing Montgomery

        Oh btw, America has a meth lab problem. How many White people do you see on the covers of America’s newspapers and magazines doped out in a meth lab? How many stories do you see with pale, ashen White meth lab babies do you read about in the news?

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