Former Wesleyan student sentenced to 1 year and 1 day in federal prison in campus drug case Convicted of selling Molly, contributing to overdoses

Eric Lonergan, second from left, 23, of Rio de Janeiro, walks into U.S. district Court in Hartford Thursday. Eric Lonergan, second from left, 23, of Rio de Janeiro, walks into U.S. district Court in Hartford Thursday. Photo: Anna Bisaro — New Haven Register Photo: Anna Bisaro — New Haven Register Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Former Wesleyan student sentenced to 1 year and 1 day in federal prison in campus drug case 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

HARTFORD >> A former Wesleyan University student convicted of selling synthetic drugs on campus was sentenced to a year and a day in prison Thursday by U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant.

Eric Lonergan, 23, of Rio de Janeiro, was convicted of distribution of controlled substances in November. In pleading guilty, he admitted to selling MDMA, also known as Molly, on Wesleyan’s campus and that some of the drugs he had provided had contributed to overdoses in September 2014.

Lonergan is scheduled to report to prison Jan 6.

“I disagree with the defense when they say that Mr. Lonergan is distinguishable from someone on the street distributing crack or heroin,” Bryant said prior to imposing the sentence Thursday afternoon. “A drug is a drug. It’s a deadly substance, the content of which the seller just does not know.”

Lonergan was the last to be sentenced in a series of cases surrounding synthetic drugs on the Middletown university campus and the government argued for the harshest sentence of any prior cases this year. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Spector had asked Bryant to consider a sentence of 30 months for Lonergan.

“He was a drug dealer,” Spector said of Lonergan prior to sentencing. “Not all that different from drug dealers that come before Your Honor.”

Spector also noted that Lonergan made about $14,000 in profits from his dealers on campus.

From his dorm room, Lonergan allegedly sold 0.1 gram bags of Molly for $20 and instructed students on how to use it between November 2013 and December 2014, according to prosecutors.

After two reported overdoses from the drug in September 2014, Spector said Lonergan continued to sell the drug and recruit new sellers, including another former Wesleyan student, Zachary Kramer, 22, of Maryland, who was sentenced to four months in prison in May. Kramer’s sentence also included eight months of home confinement and a $10,000 fine.

In February 2015, Kramer was implicated as the suspected source of drugs that contributed to 11 overdoses on campus.

Bryant said during the sentencing hearing Thursday that she believed Lonergan recruited Kramer because he no longer wanted to be the face of the distribution conspiracy if further overdoses should result after the incident in September 2014.

“He let them be the face of the operation,” Bryant said. “Then, he pointed his finger.”

Spector said Thursday that when Lonergan was first interviewed by police in February 2015, he said Kramer had been the supplier of the Molly that led to the overdoses on campus that month. Spector said it was later proven that Kramer bought the Molly from Lonergan.

Lonergan was indicted in May 2015 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance in November.

He has been out on bond through the entirety of this case, according to court records.

During the hearing Thursday, Lonergan sat up straight at the counsel table with his hands folded in front of him. He only broke this pose to wipe his face with a tissue when his attorney, Matthew Rosengart, told the court about Lonergan’s diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

He was emotional through his apology to the court and stopped several times to collect himself as he told Bryant how sorry he was for his actions.

“I come before you with the contrition of someone who made a catastrophic mistake,” Lonergan said. “The regret is unbearably painful.”

He told Bryant he had been selling the drugs because he believed he was helping other students deal with depression. He had originally started buying the Molly from the internet as a way to help his ex-girlfriend back home who he said was suffering from depression and eating disorders.

“I’m extremely grateful no one was permanently harmed,” Lonergan said.

He added that he will continue to fight to have a successful career in neuroscience, despite his federal conviction, and he hopes to still continue on to graduate school and become a professor some day.

Rosengart spoke for more than 90 minutes before Bryant Thursday, citing a 93-page sentencing memorandum at length. He told the court that Lonergan has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a mental illness that runs in his family, since the incidents in 2014 and 2015, and that the mental illness could explain Lonergan’s conduct.

“Although Eric Lonergan’s conduct is inexcusable...it’s explicable,” he said.

Rosengart went on to cite many letters submitted on Lonergan’s behalf, including letters from five Wesleyan professors which spoke to Lonergan’s smarts and character.

All five professors stated that Lonergan was an “A” student in their classes and acknowledged his commitment to academics.

In a letter to the court, Steven Horst, a professor in philosophy at Wesleyan, characterized Lonergan as a true scholar.

“By the end of the first semester I knew him, I came to expect that he would go on to pursue a career in academic research in the cognitive sciences, and that I would some day see him as a keynote speaker at academic conferences,” Horst wrote.

“In addition to this, Eric has always struck me as a genuinely nice person: kind, gentle, respectful and responsive to the ideas of other students,” Horst continued. “Eric is the kind of person who inspires and challenges those around him, including his teachers to think deeper and more broadly.”

Rosengart asked the court to consider Lonergan’s potential in the determination of the sentence.

“Despite his tragic misconduct, we have someone here who has the real potential to be an Einstein, to be an Edison in the field of neuroscience,” Rosengart said. He added that sending Lonergan to prison could delay or even keep him from achieving his potential as a scholar down the road.

Later, prior to imposing the sentence, Bryant said she would not accept a diagnosis of bipolar disorder as hindering Lonergan from making sound judgements during the time of the offense. She again referred to his recruitment of Kramer and others to sell Molly after the first overdoses in the fall of 2014.

“That, to me, does not connote a person who is delusional or deranged,” Bryant said. “That, to me, sounds like an intentional, calculated effort.”

“Mr. Lonergan who by all accounts is a brilliant person ... therefore had the ability to reason,” she added.

Bryant said that she considered the fact that the letters from professors had come on Wesleyan letterhead to be an endorsement of the university, and she said she anticipated those professors would continue to support and write letters on Lonergan’s behalf in the future.

“The implication of that letterhead is an official endorsement,” she said. “The collateral consequences are not as dire as you are attempting to paint.”

But William Holder, director of University Communications in the Wesleyan Office of University Communications, said “Wesleyan University does not endorse Mr. Lonergan in any way.”

“He was dismissed from the university. Individual faculty members are free, of course, to offer their own private opinions,” Holden said.

In preparation for sentencing, the government submitted a memorandum to the court that argued Lonergan should be sentenced to a period of incarceration in the lower end of the guidelines range, which was determined by the U.S. Probation Office to be 30 to 37 months.

“The government recognizes that Lonergan has changed,” the memorandum prepared by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Spector said. “He is not the same person who distributed a dangerous drug to his fellow students for much of his Wesleyan career.”

Spector added that the government was aware of and happy that Lonergan had begun tutoring other students about the dangers of drug use since his arrest, but the government could not ignore the victim impact in the case.

“When I look at this from a victim perspective, it’s a terrible tragedy,” he said.

According to the plea agreement in this case, signed on Nov. 30, Lonergan waived his right to appeal a sentence that was less than 37 months of imprisonment.