MONROE — A man associated with meth labs in rural Juda and downtown Monroe has been ordered to spend 10 years in the state prison system, with five years of incarceration and five years on extended supervision.
Richard D. Hauser, 37, whose most recent address was the Green County Jail, pleaded guilty to two Class F felony counts of manufacturing or delivering an amphetamine, second or subsequent offenses and as part of a conspiracy. He was sentenced Aug. 30 in Green County Circuit Court.
Numerous other related charges, including burglary and maintaining a drug-trafficking place, were dismissed as part of a plea deal but “read in,” meaning the judge could consider them at sentencing.
For the duration of his sentence, Hauser is ordered to maintain absolute sobriety and comply with any counseling and treatment ordered by his parole agent.
Hau-ser’s convictions stem from search warrants executed within the past year and a half, the first at a rural address north of Juda and the second at an apartment in downtown Monroe, according to court records.
On May 17, 2017, police received a complaint that people were trespassing in a vacant house on Rufi Lane in the Town of Sylvester.
A responding Green County deputy noted it was “a known drug house that had recently had its tenants evicted.”
When they arrived, officers reported they found one of Hauser’s co-defendants, Clay Welte, 22, twitching and “tweaking” on meth. Welte was sentenced in January to two years in prison and two years on extended supervision. Welte’s mother and another co-defendant, Sarah Christine Teubert, 40, Brodhead, is currently serving a probation sentence.
Officers seized tools and ingredients for cooking meth, including lithium batteries, over-the-counter decongestant (pseudoephedrine), Coleman fuel and ice packs that had been cut open for the ammonium nitrate granules inside.
A Gatorade bottle found on the premises had a white sludge inside that chemically reacted when picked up and “nearly exploded in one of the agent’s hands.”
A clean-up crew from Chicago was brought in to remove the volatile meth waste at the house, a deputy later testified in court.
Two other co-defendants associated with the operation have also been sentenced. Caleb Thompson Vazquez, 26, Juda, is eligible to have his convictions dismissed if he meets the conditions of a two-year deferred prosecution agreement. Jacob Edward Johnson, 37, was sentenced last year to 18 months in a Prairie du Chien prison.
About five months later, Hauser was again charged for his involvement in a meth lab, this time in an apartment in the 1700 block of 11th Street in Monroe.
According to multiple police reports filed with the criminal complaint:
The apartment had been under surveillance after the chief of the Monroe Police Department received an anonymous tip that people were making meth there.
Officers arrived with a search warrant on the morning of Oct. 31 and seized evidence of a “one pot” meth lab in the otherwise vacant apartment. Also called “shake and bake,” this method employs a plastic soda bottle to combine chemicals with a high potential for explosion into a small batch of meth crystals.
Hauser and a woman had reportedly broken into the apartment and used it for making meth.
The previous tenant, who moved out the day before, told police he had let Hauser and the woman stay with him previously but kicked them out a month earlier because they would “continually verbally abuse each other and he couldn’t take it anymore.” He denied knowing they were cooking or involved with meth.
In total, the warrant resulted in the arrest of Hauser and three women with reported involvement in the operation.
Shayna Nicole Krebs, 21, Monroe, is serving a two-year probation on her convictions and is eligible to have them expunged under a state law that grants leniency to young offenders.
Karmen Elisabeth Marshall, 26, Albany, is on probation with a conditional nine months in jail for this and other drug-related convictions.
A third woman had her charges dismissed in December.