A 31-year-old Kingston man was charged with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance and one count of possession of heroin after police said they used a confidential informant to buy “pure heroin” from the man on three different occasions.
Joshua Edmund Kroesser was arrested Friday, Aug. 29 for assault after he allegedly bit his girlfriend’s toe during a fight in the parking lot of a Kingston grocery store. The drug charges were added later as Kroesser was booked into the county jail.
Kroesser was charged with the three felony drug counts Tuesday, Sept. 2 in Kitsap County District Court.
Bail was set at $50,000 for the delivery of heroin charges, and at $10,000 for the possession charge.
All three of the heroin sales — two of them on Bainbridge Island — were conducted just days apart in mid-August.
The first drug buy allegedly took place at 3 p.m. Monday, Aug. 11 in the parking lot of the Albertsons grocery on Seventh Avenue in Poulsbo.
Police said their informant got into Kroesser’s Dodge Durango and purchased .35 grams of pure heroin for $80.
The second drug buy was just after noon on Wednesday, Aug. 13 in the parking lot of Fay Bainbridge Park, in the north lot near the boat ramp. The police informant allegedly purchased .52 grams of pure heroin for $80 while in the back of Kroesser’s Dodge.
The third drug buy was on Friday, Aug. 15 in the parking lot of the Chevron station on Hildebrand Lane on Bainbridge.
According to a certificate of probable cause in the case, the controlled delivery took place just before 5 p.m. between the restrooms and the propane tank at the gas station. The police informant exchanged $40 for .24 grams of pure heroin.
Authorities also claimed that police found Kroesser and his girlfriend sleeping in the Dodge Durango just before 9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 27.
An officer detained Kroesser and asked if police could search the Durango.
“Kroesser gave me permission and told me to take anything illegal as he wanted to change his life around and treat his heroin addiction,” the Bainbridge officer noted in the certificate of probable cause.
Kroesser also allegedly said that “everything” was in a pink box, which police easily found.
Inside, an officer discovered .8 grams of heroin, digital scales that contained heroin, syringes, a box cutter and a glass pipe.
Kroesser allegedly told police he was not employed and sold heroin to people on Bainbridge Island, and in Poulsbo and the North Kitsap area, to support his drug addiction.
Court papers indicate he initially agreed to cooperate with police to assist with other drug investigations, but did not follow through.
He was arrested for fourth-degree assault Aug. 29 in Kingston, and the delivery and possession charges were added to the booking charges on Sept. 1.
In the Kingston incident, police were called to a report of a man and woman fighting in the parking lot of an Albertsons on Highway 104. Police found Kroesser’s girlfriend in the back of his Dodge Durango, and she was bleeding from her right pinky toe.
The woman told police that Kroesser had bitten her foot during an argument, which apparently began after the keys to the Dodge went missing.
