Stephentown Drug Suspect Turned Over To Feds

by David Flint
Joshua Stegemann who was arrested in Stephentown on April 30 following a raid by multiple law enforcement agencies on his residence on Losty Road is now a federal detainee. [private]According to a State Police Public Information Officer, the federal Drug  Enforcement Administration (DEA) was among those agencies participating in the raid. Stegemann and Jami Caesar were both arraigned in Berlin Town Court on April 30 on charges of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance and other related charges and were remanded without bail to the Rensselaer County Jail.
Rensselaer County District Attorney Richard McNally said last week that the case against Stegemann had been turned over to the U.S. Attorney but the case against Caesar remains for now with the Rensselaer County Grand Jury.
Richard Belliss, Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of New York, confirmed this week that Stegemann, while still being held in the County Jail, is now a federal detainee. He appeared in federal court last week on two counts, Drug Distribution Conspiracy and Possession of Firearms to further a drug trafficking crime. The first count carries a 10 year mandatory minimum sentence with a maximum of life imprisonment and the second count could add five years to that. No date has yet been set for a trial.
Belliss could not say whether the property in Stephentown had been confiscated except that it had not been seized by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.[/private]