Nine-year sentence for Eagle River senior citizen said to use fentanyl ‘like cash’

A 75-year-old Eagle River woman has been sentenced to nine years in the Wisconsin prison system after having been found guilty of one count of possession with intent to deliver more than 50 grams of fentanyl as a party to a crime.

Susan Cody was arrested Jan. 17 with Barry Clure, 69, and Patrick Meeting, 63, after a traffic stop in the town of Monico for the expired registration of Clure’s vehicle.

According to the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office supplemental report submitted with the complaint, Cody told investigators the trio had travelled to Chicago to purchase “dope” from an individual there, and that she’d been purchasing illegal controlled substances from the individual for approximately 10 years. Cody stated she believed the substance was most likely fentanyl mixed with heroin.

On March 19 Cody waived her preliminary hearing rights and court-appointed attorney Thomas Hayes Jr. entered a not guilty plea. 

The pre-trial conference May 8, however, saw Cody plead guilty in an agreement in which the state recommended eight years in the Wisconsin state prison system, including four years of initial confinement and four of extended supervision, and payment of court costs, as well as forfeiture of $1,312 cash collected from Cody upon her arrest. The state also asked that Cody not be eligible for any programming until completing 50 percent of her initial confinement.

However, the court did not have to accept that agreement, judge Mary Sowinski pointed out, explaining, “… It’s the court’s job to determine, based on your character and the facts here, what’s appropriate under these circumstances, regardless of what the parties have agreed to …”

The court accepted Cody’s plea and found her guilty of possession with intent to deliver fentanyl of more than 50 grams as a class C felony, as a party to a crime. 

“When the court first saw this complaint, it was literally sickening … that somebody would have driven to Chicago to bring this amount of fentanyl back to our community,” Sowinski told her.

“ ... And when the court realized that these are mature people who not only should have known better, but who have lost people in their lives and know what that means, and clearly understand how fentanyl kills people, and know how many families could have been devastated by the loss of a human that they loved because of fentanyl that they brought here, it’s inconceivable.”

She noted that Cody had previous drug convictions in 2001, 2007 and 2008, and had already been to prison for delivering heroin. 

In this latest case, Cody “was essentially using this fentanyl like cash,” said Sowinski. “She would use it to purchase things for her life. A driver, a gardener, a handyman … It’s just inconceivable at her age that she would endanger the lives of other people in that way.”

Cody was sentenced to nine years in the Wisconsin prison system (five years of initial confinement and four of extended supervision), will have to pay the court costs for the proceeding, and the $1,312 was forfeited. However, she was credited with 111 days of prison time, and was made immediately available for programming, for which she thanked the court.

“I can't wait to start,” said Cody. “I really have been waiting a while. Thank you so much.”

In the meantime, a June 3 plea/sentencing hearing has been set for co-defendant Barry Clure at the request of his attorney, Peter Vu. Vu entered a plea of not guilty for Clure in March, but said at Clure’s May 5 pre-trial conference that he’d reviewed an offer and his client was prepared to change his plea.

The other co-defendant, Patrick Menting, was released May 6 on a $10,000 signature bond, amended from a $25,000 cash bond, to attend treatment at Koinonia. An additional $5,000 surety bond signed by his sister Barbara Menting was also required by the court. An adjourned initial appearance is scheduled for June 9.

Ardith Carlton may be reached at [email protected].