A young couple rounded up in the hunt for Philip Seymour Hoffman’s heroin dealer appeared in court Thursday, but insisted they had no connection to the tragic actor.
“I’m so upset,” Juliana Luchkiw told her lawyer father as she left a Manhattan courthouse after spending two days in jail.
“This is retarded.”
Luchkiw, a student at The New School, and her boyfriend, Max Rosenblum, both 22, were charged with misdemeanor possession after two bags of cocaine were seized from their Mott Street apartment during a Tuesday-night raid.
Also arrested, and still in jail, was a neighbor Robert Aaron Vineberg, 57, a jazz musician suspected of selling to Hoffman.
Vineberg was charged with felony possession and intent to sell drugs. He had more than 250 bags of heroin in his apartment, according to the criminal complaint.
Cops raided the apartment building because a tipster said he saw Hoffman score drugs there.
Among the evidence recovered were at least three cellphones with Hoffman’s number stored in them. The tipster also had Hoffman’s number in his phone.
“Max is looking forward to turning his life around and solving this matter,” Rosenblum’s lawyer, Daniel Hochheiser, said.
“He has never met, spoken to, seen or had anything to do with Philip Seymour Hoffman. My client is no way connected to Mr Hoffman’s overdose, and there has been no evidence presented that I know of that connects my client to Mr. Hoffman in any way.”