BURLINGTON — A longtime Bennington resident is being held as a flight risk and a danger to the community after he pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Burlington on Tuesday to two federal gun and drug charges from last year.
Logan Foster, 30, illegally bought a firearm in 2021 and later exchanged it for drugs with a dealer from the Springfield, Mass., area, court records show. Less than six months after buying the weapon, the 9-mm handgun was recovered at a crime scene in Holyoke, Mass., federal officials said.
Foster “has a significant history of illegal drug use and failure to comply with release conditions,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Perella said in court papers.
Perella said that when law enforcement in Bennington arrested Foster late Friday afternoon, he stated, “I’m detoxing hard.”
Foster appeared for the virtual arraignment from the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland.
The indictment charges Foster with making two false written statements during the Jan. 22, 2021, purchase of a firearm — that the gun was for Foster and that he was not a user of controlled substances. The indictment said Foster knew both claims were untrue when he signed the federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives form at a gun store.
The second felony count maintains Foster illegally possessed a 9-mm pistol in February 2021, knowing he was an unlawful user of controlled substances, the indictment said.
The federal indictment is part of an ongoing joint investigation by Bennington Police and Homeland Security Investigations into serious drug and gun activity in the area.
Perella said Foster needs to be detained to protect the public.
“The defendant, particularly when actively using drugs, is both a danger to the community and a risk of flight for which no conditions of release can sufficiently address,” the veteran prosecutor wrote.
Perella also noted that pending in a Vermont court are multiple violations of the state’s conditions of release. Foster also is subject to an absconder warrant in New York state, but it might not be extraditable, Perella wrote; absconder warrants are issued when a probationer or parolee fails to report to a case manager.
Federal Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle agreed to hold Foster as both a danger to the community and a risk to flee.
Defense lawyer Peter Langrock said he might petition for release, if a suitable plan can be established.
Foster told the court that he had been treated previously for narcotic addiction at Serenity House.
Langrock asked for 90 days to file pretrial motions. Perella had said there were considerable records, including audio and video. He said there is also a pending test on some drugs that Foster sold; he has not yet been charged for those sales.
The case has been assigned to federal Judge Christina Reiss in Burlington.
The federal indictment is an offshoot to local charges filed by the office of Bennington County State’s Attorney Erica Marthage, after a court-ordered search of Foster’s apartment at the Mid-Town Motel on West Main Street in March 2021, court records show.
Foster subsequently pleaded not guilty to state charges of possession of heroin and cocaine, conspiracy and carrying a firearm in the commission of a felony, records show.
He has about a half-dozen state cases pending, with some of them scheduled for jury selection in May with Deputy State’s Attorney Robert Plunkett.