Keshena woman gets 6 1/2 years in overdose case

Death came during Menominee opioid epidemic
By: 
Kevin Murphy
Correspondent

A Keshena woman who sold the fentanyl that resulted in a man’s fatal overdose and youth to be hospitalized, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 6½ years in prison.

Lottie A. Tucker, 37, had received what she thought was heroin from a source in Milwaukee, but it proved to be a “bad batch of fentanyl,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Kwaterski.

Tucker sold the suspected heroin to Jacqueline Grignon, 37, who resold it to Peters and a 17-year-old boy.

The youth required hospitalization and recovered. However, he subsequently died from a medical condition unrelated to the suspected heroin he purchased, Kwaterski said.

Peters’ girlfriend said Grignon had sold them the suspected heroin. The 17-year-old told police that Grignon had also sold him the drug.

At the time, Menominee Tribal Police were dealing with a significant outbreak of opioid abuse and used social media to warn the community of a particularly lethal drug in circulation.

A lab test later identified the drug sold by Tucker and Grignon to be fentanyl.

Trafficable amounts of fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine were recovered during a search of Tucker’s residence, according to a document filed with the court.

Tucker and Grignon were arrested on March 31 and pleaded guilty in October to possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl. Grignon’s sentencing is set for Jan. 12.

Tucker faced a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in prison and an advisory guideline sentence of 77 to 96 months.

Tucker’s attorney, Lee Schuchart, and Kwaterski agreed to request a four-year term as adequate punishment.

The conviction should serve as a desperately needed “wake-up call” for Tucker who not only realizes a person died from the drugs she sold but since she was taking the same drugs, she could have suffered the same fate, Schuchart wrote the court.

Tucker had been released from incarceration from a prior arrest and was on probation for only a few months when a drug dealer contacted her and reminded her that she still owed him money for drugs he had fronted her, Schuchart wrote.

Instead of informing the police, Tucker resumed drug dealing until the overdoses on the reservation occurred.

Peters’ father, Alex Peters, told U.S. District Judge William Griesbach that he “holds no malice” toward Tucker and feels sorry for those who distribute opioids on the reservation “where it is running rampant.”

“We forgive her and hopes she learns from her mistakes,” Peters said.

Tucker told Griesbach that she was sorry for the damage she had done to the families and wanted to turn her life around.

“I know I need a change and I’m ready to do so. I’m ready to accept help,” she said.

Tucker wants to undergo drug treatment while in prison and continue it after her release. She also wants to avoid people “from the lifestyle” she used to live and obtain a vocational degree and a skill that will help her earn a legitimate living.

Griesbach said, as Peters made clear, the devastating effects these drugs have on the reservation in particular and the community as a whole, “are hard to understate.”

“The damage these drugs do to our families and culture is horrible, and here it’s aggravated by the loss of life,” he said.

Griesbach encouraged Tucker to “make her life a gift” to others and a “become a crusader to young kids on the reservation and steer them away from drug abuse.”

“You can make a good life for yourself, your children and others on the reservation,” he said.