Most people released from a county jail emerge clutching their personal possessions, or maybe carrying them in a bag.
Ed “NJ Weedman” Forchion walked out of the Mercer County Correction Center just before sunset Thursday evening pulling a cart stacked with papers and binders accumulated from his two criminal trials. He was acquitted of witness tampering hours before.
A small gathering of supporters greeted him with “gifts.” He smoked one in front of the jail’s sign. Then he got into a car with his girlfriend Debi Madaio at the wheel, lit up another and went on Facebook live. (Debi also broadcast his release moments earlier.)
“I can’t believe I’m out,” Forchion said as Debi drove. “I can’t believe you’re actually sitting there,” she said, and leaned over to kiss him.
For the next 10 minutes, he smoked and talked about getting out of jail, and the change his eyes underwent (he now wears glasses) during his 15 months behind bars. He suspects the spectacles he needs is from not being able to smoke weed in jail.