Woman, 57, pleads guilty to role in drug ring
A 57-year-old woman who police say orchestrated a major opioid and heroin ring from her Campbellsport kitchen pleaded guilty Monday to two felonies that could land her in prison for seven years.
Lori Beth Merget, her son and six others were charged in late March with conspiracy to sell heroin and other narcotics, or possessing with intent to deliver the drugs that customers said Merget has been selling for years.
In Washington County Circuit Court, Merget pleaded guilty Monday to one count of delivering Schedule I or II narcotics and possessing heroin with intent to distribute. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss a more serious heroin count and another heroin possession count.
According to online court records, prosecutors will recommend seven years in prison, followed by five years extended supervision on one count, plus a consecutive fiveyear prison term that would be suspended in lieu of a five-year probation term Merget would serve after prison on the first count.
Her sentencing is set for Sept. 11 in West Bend.
The criminal complaint charged that Merget and a man who lived at her home, Steven Duncan, 55, described by some customers as her “errand boy,” obtained 450 oxycodone tablets per month via prescriptions from two pain clinics in Milwaukee, as well as from street dealers who would sell to the girlfriend of Merget’s son and other runners during near-daily trips to Milwaukee for pills and heroin.
Some customers told investigators that Merget used profits from the operation to sustain her 31-year-old son William’s own heroin addiction.
One co-defendant pleaded guilty last month. Cases against the other six co-defendants, including Duncan, Merget’s son William and her sister, remain open.