Police: Hope House Resident Arrested for Possessing, Intending to Sell Meth

A 50-year-old resident of the Hope House of the St. Croix Valley was arrested this week on suspicion of possessing about 22 grams of methamphetamine.

Joseph Lee Phillips was arrested on May 7 on suspicion of second-degree possession of a controlled substance charges, and released shortly thereafter pending the results of testing by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

According to the police report:

Stillwater police were called to the Hope House on a report that a resident was in possession of methamphetamine and intended on selling the controlled substance to someone in his group at the Minneapolis Park House.

Phillips told police he found two baggies he suspected contained methamphetamine in two different locations—one on the street and another near the curb—while he was on a walk on Mulberry Street.

When police told Phillips it seemed strange that he “just found these,” he allegedly stuck to his story.

Phillips told police he planned on taking the meth to a place in downtown Minneapolis that tests drugs to verify whether or not it was methamphetamine, the report states. Phillips then allegedly planned to ask someone there if they “knew who had or used meth in Stillwater.”

When police asked Phillips if his intention was to sell the drugs, he allegedly said yes. Police then asked if “he understood why that was a problem,” he reportedly became upset and stated, “I didn’t do it.”

Phillips told police he had used meth a few times in the past, but crack cocaine was his drug of preference. Phillips told police he has served time in prison for possessing “vials of trace residue in the past.”

Police arrested Phillips, but released him after tests on the substance were inconclusive, the report states. The substance was sent to the BCA for testing.

The case remains under investigation.