MONROE — In addition to others charged with similar offenses, a Brodhead business owner faces charges that he sold cars with tampered odometers and also engaged in meth trafficking.
Kyle B. Disch, 35, Albany, signed a $20,000 signature bond Dec. 16 in Green County Circuit Court on four felony counts of theft by false representation, four felony counts making false odometer statements to defraud and two misdemeanor counts of using a device to alter an odometer, all as a party to a crime. His preliminary hearing is Jan. 2.
In a separate case, he’s charged with three more felonies, two related to the possession and delivery of methamphetamine and one alleging illegal possession of a firearm as a convicted felon. His preliminary hearing in the meth case is Feb. 14.
Months of investigation by local and federal authorities led to the meth charges against Disch, with two others also arrested.
Darrin W. Demrow, 41, Brodhead, was arrested in November after a search warrant on his Mary Lane home yielded over a quarter-pound of meth, according to the Green County Sheriff’s Office.
Demrow was indicted Dec. 11 by a federal grand jury in Madison. He’s charged with attempting to possess meth with the intent to distribute on Aug. 8 and possessing 50 grams or more of meth with the intent to distribute on Nov. 21. If convicted, Demrow faces up to 60 years in federal prison, with a mandatory minimum of five years on the charge of possessing 50 grams or more.
Tasha M. Nafzger, 30, was arrested on a Wisconsin Department of Corrections probation apprehension warrant as a result of the search of Demrow’s home, the sheriff’s office announced. Related charges have not yet been filed against her.
Disch was arrested in November after a search of his home on Norwegian Road in rural Albany yielded 1.5 grams of meth and a .22 caliber rifle and ammo, according to the sheriff’s office. He posted a $2,000 cash bond in the case.
According to the criminal complaints, Demrow told investigators Disch “borrowed” him $2,700 to travel to Texas to buy meth, with $1,700 intended for the drug purchase and $1,000 for car rental, gas and food. He said they agreed that Disch would get a half-ounce of meth and Demrow would pay the money back. As “collateral,” Demrow said he gave Disch the title for his snowmobile.
Texts between Demrow and Disch, obtained via a search warrant on Demrow’s phone, show the two men discussing a “half.”
Green County Sheriff Jeff Skatrud said his officers worked about four months on the meth investigation with local, regional and federal agents, including the Denton County Sheriff’s Office in Texas and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“I’ve been informed that allegedly there has been some travel to Texas or vice versa,” Skatrud said.
Green County District Attorney Craig Nolen declined to comment on the case. He said the meth investigation is ongoing.
The separate case involving odometer tampering implicates Disch as well as a co-conspirator, his cousin Brendon D. Collins, 29, New Glarus. A third possible co-conspirator is named in the criminal complaint but has not been charged.
Collins faces one felony count each of theft and fraud related to the sale of one vehicle, as well as felony bail jumping charges.
Disch has owned a car-detailing business in Brodhead since 2015, Sharp Image Auto Detailing. Court records indicate Collins is an employee.
Between May 2016 and November 2018, Disch sold at least four Chevrolet Tahoes with odometers that had been rolled back, according to the criminal complaints. Collins allegedly carried out one of the sales.
Joel Ingebrigtson, a fraud and odometer investigator with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, told local police Disch was either swapping out the original odometers with odometers with lower mileage from a salvage yard or he was “using an odometer correction tool to dial the mileage back.”
By rolling back the odometers, Disch was able to sell the vehicles for more than they were worth, and he was carrying out this scheme “numerous” times, Ingebrigtson told investigators.
One of the victims, a man from Horicon, told police he responded to a Craigslist ad and paid Disch $6,000 cash for a 2003 Tahoe with 127,500 miles. He later found it actually had over 200,000 miles.
An investigating officer noted that when police asked the man if he would have bought the Tahoe had he known the true mileage, the man “replied with an emphatic ‘No!’”
Another victim, a Janesville man, told police mileage was his deciding factor in buying a Tahoe from Disch. He later learned the SUV’s actual mileage was over 50,000 miles more than the odometer indicated.