SHOOK ONES
‘Halfway crooks’ try to shake down NJ Weedman, threaten him over violent incident at Joint over summer
TRENTON >> There’s no extinguishing this.
Ed Forchion, the selfproclaimed peaceful pothead long accepted with welcome arms in some of Trenton’s toughest neighborhoods, is scared to leave his house for fear there is a hit out on him — and not the kind he’s used to taking from bongs.
He told The Trentonian he has become somewhat of a paranoid shut-in after a viral video of him clubbing another man in the head with a fire extinguisher inside his Joint restaurant months ago has resulted in threats of reprisals.
In the past few months, Forchion, better known as NJ Weedman, says he has received cash demands and menacing suggestions, both online and in person, for committing what he says was an act of self-defense when he was smashed in the head with a hookah vase after a fight broke out following a late-night event in July.
It has been revealed that the man who Forchion bashed over the head is a violent ex-con who was released from federal custody earlier this year.
Forchion said city cops visited with him after the incident to inform him they were aware online threats had been made against him.
The marijuana activist said a federal investigator even stopped by one day to ask him whether he believed the fight that led him to deploy the fire extinguisher, allegedly over a woman, was “gang-related.”
Once, while out shopping at a store, Forchion said someone approached him and said: “You know they’re coming back” for you.
“I don’t know if he’s some random motherf***er from the neighborhood or he’s one of them. How do I just ignore the threats and just hope one day they don’t do nothing?” Forchion asked.
Then on Aug. 19, two men visited the marijuana activist’s business with a “mobbish” offer: $10,000 to make “your street problems can go away.”
NJ Weedman turned them down. A few days later, he got what he dubbed an “extortion letter” from a Philly attorney representing the man he knocked out cold.
According to a copy of the letter obtained by the newspaper, attorney Jason Fine identified his “assaulted and battered” client as Rashard Dowdell, a hardened criminal who has done more than a decade in state and federal prisons.
Fine explained Dowdell was treated for head and back trauma at Capital Health Regional Medical Center and demanded Forchion turn over any documents and surveillance related to the incident.
Forchion’s extensive camera system was off that night, he says, so there’s no video other than the one of him laying into Dowdell,
who remained slumped up against the wall as someone taunted him on camera: “N **** sleep.”
Dowdell, it turns out, appears to have rank on the city streets, which worries Forchion. He got three years in the slammer for getting wrapped up in the sensational shooting of a wellknown bookie in the butt in 2009, according to Trentonian archives. He was also arrested in February 2009 on kidnapping charges related to a domestic violence case, according to media reports.
Dowdell, now 37, was on supervised federal release for a heroin trafficking conviction and had just been release from prison July 5, weeks before the fire extinguisher dustup, records show.
Neither Forchion nor anyone else who allegedly scuffled were charged by police.
“I guess gang-bangers do drive-by lawsuits now. I’m the green guy. I’m not red. I’m not blue,” Forchion said, referring to the colors associated with the notorious Bloods and Crips street gangs. “My fight was with the government, not my own brothers and sisters.”
The weed legalization activist who spent most of his life as a government antagonist how finds himself in the odd predicament of seeking help from the government. NJ Weedman says he reported the $10,000 extortion attempt to Trenton Police Detective Gregory Hollo.
In a Sept. 15 letter, also sent to The Trentonian, Forchion wrote, “As you told me after the July 27th incident there were a few threats against me online both you and I observed. Since then, I’ve received several directly myself. I was recently told there is a hit out on me. But I want to bring to your attention on Aug 19th, two guys I don’t know came into my restaurant and implied if I paid $10,000 my street problems would go away. They said they could help.”
NJ Weedman attached Fine’s alleged extortion letter to the packet mailed to the detective.
“The lawyer, as you see, identifies one of the home/ business invaders of July 27th and then seeks to capitalize on his clients ‘felon invasion’ of my business,” Forchion wrote.
Fine did not respond to a message left at his office Wednesday seeking comment.
Trenton Police spokesman Capt. Stephen Varn didn’t immediately have information about the status of an investigation into Forchion’s hit/extortion claims.
Forchion wonders if Dowdell or his cohorts are trying to shake him down, expecting he may be a rich man in the future.
Forchion filed a lawsuit against Trenton Police and Mercer County prosecutors over a raid that authorities said netted tens of thousands of dollars in marijuana products a few years ago.
The raid, carried out by armed cops in tactical gear, led to NJ Weedman’s eventual imprisonment on witness tampering charges, the crushing of his famous Weedmobile and irreparably damaged his business’ reputation. Forchion was eventually acquitted of witness tampering charges leveled against him for allegedly intimidating the “rat” who helped cops in the drug bust at The Joint.
Forchion demanded a $4.2 million settlement from the city, an obvious nod to the celebrated 4/20 reefer holiday.
Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Peter Sheridan dismissed all but six counts in the lawsuit, against former city police director Ernest Parrey Jr. and assistant prosecutor William “Bill” Haumann, the chief of the prosecutor’s forfeiture unit, according to court filings. Another court date is set for Dec. 10.
Forchion fired back at Dowdell’s attorney with a fiery screed of his own: “I take your letter as a [sic] unethical attempt at ‘extorting’ me or a [sic] company for cash for your client’s obvious crimes against me and others.”
“These dudes came bumrushing up in here, now you’re threatening to sue me. No shame,” Forchion said.
Since NJ Weedman cannot legally carry a firearm due to his felony drug convictions, he has had to make serious life changes for his protection, he says.
He’s beefed up security at events. He’s steering clear of North Trenton, Dowdell’s alleged stomping grounds. And he’s not patronizing places around the city he used to frequent.
“I’m not even f***ing barhopping now. I don’t know who the f**k I’m gonna bump into. I feel like Salaman Rushdie,” NJ Weedman said, comparing himself to the famed British author who faced death threats after penning The Satanic Verses. “I’m not in hiding, but I’m in a dangerous little town.”