Kingston man guilty of drug charges

KINGSTON – An Ulster County Court jury has convicted a 41-year-old Kingston man on drug charges.

The jury, sitting in Kingston, found Ronald Johnson, Jr. of Brown Street guilty of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree.

He was one of 15 people indicted in connection with a 2007 investigation by the URGENT task force and the District Attorney’s office into street level narcotics sales in the Midtown Kingston area.

Johnson, with a street name of “Rah,” was arrested for selling heroin to a confidential informant in the presence of an undercover police officer at the Sunoco station on Foxhall Avenue on October 19, 2006.

In June 1992, Johnson was convicted in Bronx County Criminal Court of robbery in the second degree. He served four years in state prison.

As a prior felony offender, he faces six to 15 years in prison when sentenced next month.

He was also convicted on charges of forgery, misdemeanor drug possession and promoting prison contraband in December 2004.