Man awaiting trial gets new drug charge
Published 7:56 am Friday, March 30, 2018
Kenneth Daniel Staffon, 38, of Austin was charged on Thursday in Mower County District Court with felony first-degree sales of 17 grams or more of methamphetamine.
According to the court complaint, Staffon sold 19.97 grams of methamphetamine to a confidential police informant for $535 on Jan. 26. The drugs were then surrendered to the police at a prearranged location.
Staffon, along with three other individuals, was arrested on Feb. 8 after law enforcement executed a search warrant on his residence in the 800 block of Sixth Street Northwest. Staffon claimed he was “just visiting” his girlfriend, and was living with his mother in Oregon.
However, when an officer spoke to a woman at the residence, she allegedly said Staffon had been living there since “around Thanksgiving” and that she had observed him conduct drug sales out of the residence.
A canine was brought through the residence and allegedly responded to several places in Staffon and his girlfriend’s bedroom.
Officers allegedly found 6.25 grams of methamphetamine under a Bluetooth speaker on the nightstand.
The search warrant was also for Staffon’s car, a 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix that he allegedly failed to register with the Predatory Offender Registration.
As a result of that arrest, Staffon was charged with felony third-degree sales of a narcotic, felony fifth-degree drug possession and felony predatory offender failing to register. He has since pled not guilty to those charges and is currently awaiting trial.
A review of Staffon’s criminal record shows prior convictions for drug possession, drug sales and failure to register as a predatory offender.
He will appear in court again on April 12.