Fed drug charges pending for 5
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By PATRICK McARDLE STAFF WRITER - Published: June 9, 2009
BENNINGTON – Federal charges are pending for five people arrested last week after a report of a drug overdose in Bennington led police to find thousands of prescriptions pills and almost a thousand marijuana plants, according to Bennington County State's Attorney Erica Marthage.
On Monday, Marthage asked the judge to set $100,000 bail on Jessica A. Stratton, 28, whose address is listed in Pownal.
Stratton was arraigned in Bennington District Court on Monday on four felony charges: three counts of possession of more than 100 doses of prescription drugs and one count of possession of stolen property worth more than $900.
According to an affidavit filed in the case, Stratton had more than 100 doses of the narcotic drug Valium and depressants Klonopin and morphine.
Marthage said that despite the address listed in court records, Stratton and her boyfriend, Jason Seifert, were living in a home in Hoosick Falls along with three other people.
The other three, Stratton's twin brothers Michael J. Stratton and Mark J. Stratton, 25, and David S. Oakes, whose address is listed in Shaftsbury, were also arrested last week.
Marthage said she had a meeting on Monday morning with the district attorneys from the New York counties of Rensselaer and Washington and a U.S. Attorney from Albany, N.Y.
According to Marthage, the purpose of the meeting was to determine what charges should be brought against the five people and under what jurisdictions.
In an affidavit, police said they investigated a reported overdose at the Apple Valley Inn in Bennington on June 3. Bennington Police officers said they found more than 1,000 pills in the motel room where Stratton and Seifert were staying, including almost 400 Valium, almost 650 Klonopin and about 100 doses of liquid morphine.
Police believe the prescription drugs were stolen from O'Hearn's Pharmacy in Cambridge, N.Y., sometime between the night of May 28 and the next morning and Thorpe's Pharmacy in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., in April. Cambridge-Greenwich Police Chief George Bell said last week that they believed the value of the prescription drugs taken from Cambridge was about $60,000 and about $16,000 from Hoosick Falls.
Police later searched the car used by Stratton and Seifert that was at the motel. Marthage said another 2,300 pills were found there.
The marijuana plants and other prescription pills were found at the home in Hoosick Falls where Marthage said the five people lived.
According to Bell, several young children also lived at the home. Marthage said Jessica Stratton would face child endangerment charges in New York as a result.
Stratton is also expected to be charged in New York in relation to the pharmacy burglaries. Marthage said police believe Stratton acted as a driver or lookout for the burglaries.
Marthage said the federal charges were likely to be prosecuted first.
Stratton already has a felony conviction in Vermont for selling heroin in 2004, according to Marthage.
Judge John Wesley said because more charges were looming, he would raise Stratton's bail from $20,000 to $50,000.
While Marthage said charges were filed against the Stratton twins in Rensselaer County on Monday, a call to the Rensselaer County district attorney's office to confirm those charges was not returned.
Police believe the five people arrested last week were also involved with other burglaries in New York and in Bennington and Manchester in Vermont.
patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com
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