BRISTOL — Three Bristol residents last week pleaded innocent in Addison Superior Court, criminal division, to heroin trafficking-related charges stemming from a July 16 incident in South Street in Bristol.
Edward James Chaloux, 56; Corrine Louise Cantin, 51; and Derek Anthony Jackson, 49, each face a felony charge of trafficking heroin. Conviction on this charge carries a penalty of up to 30 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $1 million.
In addition, Chaloux and Cantin each face a misdemeanor charge of providing false information to a police officer. Bristol police officer Josh Otey was the lead investigator in the case.
In court documents, Otey said it was at around 2 p.m. on July 16 that he responded to 14 South St. on a report of a motorist allegedly throwing a blue package out of his car window while driving by. Chaloux told authorities he had picked up the package and taken it into the South Street home he shared with Cantin, according to court documents.
Cantin and Chaloux told Otey they found drugs in the package and sought to get them out of the house, according to Otey.
When Otey asked to see the drugs, he said Cantin and Chaloux told him “the drugs had been flushed down the toilet” prior to his arrival, according to Otey’s investigative affidavit. “Chaloux indicated our (police) response was long and that he did not want to keep ‘chemical drugs’ in his home.”
Chaloux and Cantin specifically described the package as having contained rice and small white packages labeled “Sweet Life,” according to court records.
“I questioned them being able to flush those items down the toilet, but they insisted that they had disposed of them by flushing them,” Otter wrote in his affidavit.
Otey said he asked to see a photo of the package that Cantin said she had taken with her phone. The photo appeared to confirm the package contained heroin, according to Otey.
“Although I did not believe the information regarding the drugs being flushed down the toilet, I left the residence and re-entered my patrol vehicle in the parking lot for a short time,” Otey wrote in his affidavit.
Otey said Cantin came out of her apartment to speak with him and invited him to go back inside to speak with Chaloux, according to court records.
“Chaloux told me that a male had come by their residence and indicated that perhaps the male could have taken the drugs from the residence,” Otey wrote in his affidavit.
That male, according to Otey, was later identified as Jackson, who lived at a nearby South Street address.
Otey interviewed Jackson at his home. He alleged that Jackson acknowledged receiving a package from Chaloux in a brown paper bag and added, “I walked by and he said ‘hold on to this for me.’ I know him, I like him, I didn’t know what it was so I held onto it for him, he said he’d be at my house and ‘give me a couple of days and I’ll come pick it up.’”
Jackson went into his living room and produced a plastic bag “containing a substance and packaging I immediately recognized to be that of heroin,” Otey’s affidavit reads.
Police said they seized a total of 205 baggies of heroin at the scene, weighing a combined total of 5.2 grams.
Jackson’s criminal history, according to Otey, includes arrests for burglary, kidnapping, breaking and entering, procuring liquor for a minor, assault, violating conditions of release, larceny and being a fugitive from justice. Jackson allegedly admitted to Otey his status as a convicted felon, according to court records.
Chaloux’s criminal record includes two felony convictions including forgery and false pretenses, and 10 misdemeanor convictions including assault, disorderly conduct, unlawful mischief, retail theft and possession of marijuana, according to Otey.
Otey said Cantin has no previous criminal history.