Cotten pleads guilty to drug charges in federal court

Juneau police officers confer as they arrest Chuck Cotten, property manager at the Bergmann Hotel. Cotten was responsible for removing residents from their rooms before Friday March 10, 2017 in Juneau, Alaska. The building has been condemned. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/Alaska's Energy Desk)
Juneau police officers confer as they arrest Chuck Cotten, property manager at the Bergmann Hotel. Cotten was responsible for removing residents from their rooms before Friday March 10, 2017, in Juneau, Alaska. The building was condemned, but the city deemed it fit for human occupancy in January 2018. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

A former Bergmann Hotel manager may spend the next decade in prison for dealing drugs.

Charles Edward Cotten Jr., 52, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to four counts of distributing methamphetamine.

Cotten was arrested in October for selling at least 111 grams of methamphetamine in May and June of 2017.

Authorities also found a .45-caliber handgun and nearly 392 grams of a mixture containing methamphetamine in his vehicle.

Cotten previously was convicted in Missouri for manufacture of a controlled substance.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess said the amount of the drugs involved and Cotten’s prior convictions will impact his sentence.

In addition to 10 years in prison, Cotten may be on supervised release for 10 years.

Burgess reminded Cotten the plea only resolves the case involving four specific drug sales and nothing else.

Cotten was the manager of the Bergmann Hotel in fall 2016 prior to the city condemning it in March 2017, just before confidential informants recorded buying methamphetamine from Cotten and a co-defendant, Ricky Stapler Lisk, 36.

Cotten also was the husband of Penny Cotten, whose death by gunshot last September at the Breakwater Inn is under investigation by Juneau police.

Cotten will be sentenced Aug. 3.

Lisk pleaded guilty in February and will be sentenced in October.

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