MONROE — Charges alleging a man maintained a drug-trafficking place at his former Monroe apartment have been fully dismissed due to insufficient evidence, according to Green County court records.

Maurice Darnell King, 48, now of New Glarus, was charged in July with felony counts of possessing narcotics as a party to a crime, second or subsequent offense, and maintaining a drug-trafficking place, also modified as a second or subsequent offense. He also faced a related misdemeanor charge of possessing drug paraphernalia as a party to a crime.

The case was brought against him after a 31-year-old man snorted and overdosed on heroin in King’s then-apartment in the 1500 block of 21st Street in Monroe on July 9, according to court records.

Medics gave oxygen and two shots of Narcan to the man who overdosed. He was revived.

Court records indicate that King was the legal tenant of the apartment but was letting other people stay there, including the man who overdosed. King said he called 911 to report the overdose and told police “he was unaware of any drugs in the residence as he does not do drugs.”

The man who overdosed told police that of all the people in the apartment, he was the only one who used drugs inside the residence. He refused to say where he got the heroin.

A search warrant executed on the apartment two days later led to the charges against King as well as drug-possession charges against the man who overdosed.

The overdose victim subsequently died in October in Dane County. The case against him was still pending at the time of his death.

At a hearing before Judge James Beer about a week later on Oct. 16, the charges against King were dismissed without prejudice. As the motion to dismiss explained, “the evidence at this time is insufficient to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Charges dismissed without prejudice can be refiled against a defendant in the future, however King has not been recharged and District Attorney Craig Nolen said he has no plans to recharge King or anyone else in relation to the search warrant on the apartment.

“We couldn’t definitively show that (King) knew the heroin was in the apartment,” Nolen said, adding that the heroin located during the search was in a closet in a coat pocket, “which I was not initially aware of.”

Because of the number of people staying in the apartment at the time, “it’s hard to establish whose coat it was.”

John Smerlinski, King’s defense attorney, said the case had a “total lack of evidence.”

“There was no evidence linking any substances found in the apartment to (King),” Smerlinksi said. “They quite clearly could not prove that the drugs were my client’s. I said to the prosecutor, ‘you’re never going to win at trial,’ and he agreed with me and decided to drop it.”