SPRING LAKE HEIGHTS - Councilman Robert T. Merriken Sr., arrested last month on a drug paraphernalia charge, has a prior history of prostitution arrests, including charges that he paid a woman $25 for sex in a Jewish cemetery.
Merriken was arrested by police in Neptune on Jan. 10, 2015, and charged with paying a woman $25 for oral sex on a bitter cold evening in the Chesed Shel Ames Hebrew Cemetery on West Bangs Avenue.
After initially saying he would resign, Merriken, a Republican whose three-year term expires at the end of this year, later changed his mind.
In an interview last month, he said the drug paraphernalia wasn’t his.
"I’m not a drug addict," Merriken said at the time. "They said they found a hypodermic needle in my trunk, which is absolutely a lie. I don’t do drugs. Never have. It’s really ridiculous. It’s a terrible thing." .
