Cops Planted Heroin In My Car, Morris Co. Man Claims In Lawsuit

PARSIPPANY, NJ — A Montville man is suing the Parsippany police department and the Morris County Sheriff's office, saying officers planted heroin in his car during a traffic stop.

David C. Wheat says officers illegally searched his car during a November 2017 traffic stop for failing to keep right on Route 46. He was then arrested after officers allegedly planted a fold of heroin in the car, the suit claims. It was filed in Morris County Superior Court earlier this week.

Spokespeople for the sheriff's office and the Parsippany police department both declined to comment Thursday morning.

The suit says Wheat was driving with his sister the morning of Nov. 29, 2017 when Parsippany police officers pulled him over near Littleton Road on Route 46. His sister was a passenger in the car at the time.

After Parsippany officers checked his documentation, Wheat was ordered out of the car while local police called the sheriff's office's K-9 unit, the suit says.

What followed was an "extensive" search of Wheat's car, the suit alleged, after one of the dogs had a "hit" on a smell near the trunk. The suit claims officers and K-9s were "climbing in and out of the back seat and front seat several times, with no evidence of drug or drug paraphernalia found until one defendant officer walked over to the passenger side of the vehicle and allegedly found a 'heroin' fold inside the vehicle."

"Despite the heroin 'fold' not belonging to [Wheat] or his sister, and not being in the motor vehicle to begin with, plaintiff was then arrested and taken into custody by defendants," the suit says.

The suit alleges that both departments violated Wheat's federal and state civil and constitutional rights. Wheat is seeking compensatory, consequential, and punitive damages, and attorney's fees in a jury trial.