Kalispell woman sentenced for heroin trafficking

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — A Kalispell woman who transported a bag of heroin inside her vagina will spend three years in prison on a trafficking conviction, according to a ruling by a Coeur d’Alene judge earlier this month.

Kassaundra R. Lageson, 27, was sentenced to a minimum of three years in prison with four additional years tacked on as indeterminate prison time. That means the Idaho Department of Corrections can keep her locked up for a total of seven years depending on how well she fares behind bars.

Trafficking heroin carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of three years.

Prosecutors at Lageson’s sentencing asked the court for a three- to 10-year sentence, urging First District Judge John T. Mitchell to order more prison time because, they alleged, Lageson had a considerable history in the drug culture.

Lageson’s record shows various charges in Montana, including felony criminal distribution of dangerous drug charges. She currently has three outstanding warrants in Flathead County.

Lageson’s attorney, public defender Jay Logsdon, however said his client’s criminal history was minimal. He pointed out her co-defendant, 28-year-old Joshua J. Thomas — who drove the car Lageson was in when she was arrested — was charged with delivery, which carries no mandatory minimum prison term.

“I don’t believe that this is a just outcome,” Logsdon said. “Adding seven years isn’t warranted.”

The couple was arrested in March after deputies stopped their black Toyota Camry with overly tinted windows on Interstate 90 near the Mullan Road exit east of Coeur d’Alene. Deputies said the car had crossed the centerline without using a turn signal.

After seeing marijuana and paraphernalia inside the vehicle in plain view, according to a deputy’s report, the vehicle was searched and deputies found scales, baggies, a small quantity of methamphetamine and a drug pipe. Deputies said Lageson had two pairs of sunglasses on her head and sat in the passenger seat clutching a tin in her lap. She refused to look at deputies when she spoke, and her responses were slow and drawn out, indicating she was high, a deputy wrote.

The tin was found to contain a small amount of heroin and methamphetamine, according to deputies.

In a recording of Thomas and Lageson in the backseat of a patrol car, Thomas asked Lageson where she stashed the heroin.

“I cootered it,” Lageson replied, meaning she inserted the baggie into her vagina.

Before being booked into the Kootenai County jail, Lageson told authorities where she had hidden the 12.5 grams — almost half an ounce — of black tar heroin.

At sentencing, Mitchell called Lageson’s friendship with Thomas a bad decision.

Thomas, he said, was “a bad presence to be with, and (it was) an incredible amount of heroin.”

This is not the first time Lageson and Thomas have been reportedly caught together with drugs.

According to Flathead District Court documents, the Northwest Drug Task Force had been advised that Thomas and Lageson were allegedly trafficking drugs in 2016.

On Sept. 20, 2016, Thomas and Lageson reportedly agreed to sell half an ounce of meth to a confidential informant for $675. The informant reportedly gave Lageson the money, and she in turn got the drugs from Thomas to give to the informant. On Sept. 22, 2016 a similar routine was reportedly followed and the informant allegedly bought another half ounce of meth for the same amount.

In one Oct. 4, 2016, incident the task force conducted an undercover buy operation where a confidential informant allegedly purchased a half ounce of meth from Lageson.

On Feb. 15, agents reportedly located Thomas and Lageson in a Kalispell hotel and found a clear container holding what was later confirmed as meth by the Montana State Crime Lab.

According to a Montana probation officer’s report, Thomas was a high-level Kalispell drug dealer who was ordered by a Montana court not to leave the state. Thomas posted a $25,000 bond at the time.

According to a Montana Department of Corrections Adult Probation and Parole report filed in court in May, Thomas reportedly violated probation on a two-year deferred sentence for felony theft. One of the reported violations was that Thomas had items indicative of trafficking drugs in April. In March, Thomas also reportedly traveled to Kootenai County, Idaho, with no prior authorization from his probation officer when he was arrested.