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By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER [email protected]
Saturday, June 05, 2004     Page: 3A

A former Wyoming Valley West High School football player is facing a
hearing this month on charges he sold anabolic steroids to a fellow student.
   
Joshua M. Sweet, 18, of Poplar Street, Larksville, is charged with
possession, possession with intent to deliver and delivery of a controlled
substance.
    Police said he sold methandrostenolone, a steroid with the street name
“D-Ball,” to a juvenile in the parking lot of Church Street Park on March 9.
   
Sweet was a wide receiver with Valley West’s football team during the 2003
season. Coach Ed Michaels could not be reached for comment Friday.
   
According to an arrest papers:
   
Kingston police officer Ed Palka was on patrol when saw two males, later
identified as Sweet and a juvenile, sitting in a car with its interior light
on.
   
Palka approached the car and saw Sweet and the juvenile moving their hands
rapidly as if they were concealing something. Palka questioned them, then
asked them to exit the vehicle. When they did, Palka noticed a clear baggie
with white pills laying on the floor behind the driver’s seat.
   
Sweet told Palka the pills were steroids for his knee, but he could not
produce a prescription for the drugs and was taken into custody.
   
Palka then phoned Sweet’s mother, the car’s owner, and she allowed Palka to
search the vehicle. Palka found more pills in the glove compartment, as well
as $355 in cash, a knife and a cell phone.
   
Sweet later admitted he was selling steroids for $5 for 10 pills, and that
he had sold about 800 pills in the past three or four days. The affidavit does
not identify to whom the other pills were sold.
   
The charges against Sweet were filed May 3, nearly two months after the
alleged offense. Neither Palka nor police chief Dan Beky could be reached for
comment Friday regarding the delay in the filing.
   
Sweet remains free on $10,000 unsecured bail.