STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) - An art gallery owner arrested for helping place a steel sculpture of a bent drug spoon at Purdue Pharma’s Connecticut headquarters in protest of the opioid epidemic is set to learn whether he will receive a probation program.
Fernando Alvarez is due in Stamford Superior Court on Monday. He was charged with misdemeanor obstructing free passage and applied for accelerated rehabilitation, which would result in the charge being erased from his record if he successfully completes a probation period.
Alvarez and artist Domenic Esposito dropped the 11-foot-long, 4-foot-high sculpture in front of the company’s Stamford headquarters on June 22. It symbolizes spoons used by drug abusers.
Purdue Pharma denes allegations in lawsuits by state and local governments that its marketing of the opioid painkiller OxyContin helped fuel the opioid crisis.
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