Crime & Safety

5 Members of the Dabish Family to Stand Trial on K2 Charges

Two Shelby Township detectives testified about the raid on the family's gas station and smoke shop during the preliminary exam for Derick Dabish.

Five members of the Dabish family accused of selling K2 and other drugs out of a Shelby Township gas station and smoke shop were bound over Wednesday to stand trial in Macomb Circuit Court.

Only one of the members of the family chose to have a preliminary exam before 41-A District Court Judge Douglas Shepherd. 

Derick Dabish, 31, who is in state custody for an alleged parole violation, chose to have his preliminary exam in district court. 

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Macomb Assistant Prosecutor William Dailey called two Shelby Township detectives to the stand who recounted the Oct. 31 raid and investigation of the former  which is in the adjoining plaza.

In questioning by Dailey, chief of the prosecutor's drug unit, detectives stated they found K2—which was illegal at the time of the raid—at the gas station and in the Woodstock Tobacco store.

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They also searched an apartment located below the smoke shop, where they found Derick Dabish's personal items, including a baggie that contained cocaine, packages of K2 and a receipt for a Sterling Heights storage shed where investigators later found between 750 and 1,000 packages of K2.

Additionally, detectives found a number of "whip it"—small containers of oxygen which can be used to get high—in both locations. Investigators added that they searched a safety deposit box owned by Dabish and found additional K2 packets.

Defense attorney Joseph Arnone argued that investigators never saw Dabish sell the K2 after the synthetic drug was banned nor was he seen entering storage unit or the apartment.

"(Prosecutors) can't even establish he was ever even down there (apartment). Because he worked there he went in every area of the building," said Arnone, who added that there is no evidence his client had control over the smoke shop. 

After hearing both sides, Judge Shepherd bound Dabish over to stand trial on charges that include delivering and manufacturing controlled substances, maintaining a drug house and possession of a controlled substance.

"The prosecution has sustained their burden of proof," he said. "There is factual issues here, and at a minimum, some strong circumstantial evidence. All of which would sustain the prosecution's burden of proof at this level."

Other family members decided to waive their preliminary exam and stand trial on similar drug charges.

Faize Dabish, 63, of West Bloomfield, along with her son, David Dabish, 39, waived their exams before Shepherd. Her grandsons, Audrick Dabish, 18, and Dedrick Dabish, 17, both of Sterling Heights, also waived their preliminary exams. 

Her other, son Jeffery (Dabish) Dabish, has suffered either a heart attack or stroke and was not in court. His attorney, Harold Fried, successfully requested a competency and culpability exam to determine if Dabish is able to proceed with a trial due to his "medical issue."

The five members of the Dabish family will be arraigned in Macomb Circuit Court on May 13.


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