DARLINGTON — The second of three people arrested in a meth bust at a Town of Belmont trailer home in January has been sentenced in Lafayette County Circuit Court.
Nicole Ann Ruch, 39, Platteville, was sentenced Aug. 27 to 18 months in prison, to be followed by three years on extended supervision and a consecutive three years on probation.
She pleaded no contest earlier this summer to felony charges of manufacturing or delivering methamphetamine, maintaining a drug trafficking place and neglecting a child younger than 6, all as a party to a crime. She also pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of child neglect.
Conditions of her supervision include absolute sobriety and payment of $395 to the State Line Area Narcotics Team, the agency that investigated the case.
One of Ruch’s co-defendants, James Jesse Cubit, 40, Mineral Point, pleaded guilty to similar meth-related charges and was sentenced earlier in August to two years in prison and three years extended supervision.
A third co-defendant, Christopher D. Vinson, 32, Hollandale, faces similar charges to Ruch but has not yet entered a plea. He’s subsequently been charged twice since January with felony bail jumping. All cases are still pending, and Vinson is under bond conditions to have no contact with Ruch and only approved, supervised contact with the two children involved.
The cases stem from an investigation into drug activity at a trailer in the Evergreen Village Mobile Home Park just east of Platteville on County XX in the Town of Belmont. According to court records, a confidential source purchased 1.4 grams of meth for $170 from Ruch and Vinson on Dec. 13 and 2.4 grams for $225 from Cubit on Jan. 7.
Court records indicate that two children, ages 7 and 4, were observed in the trailer with adults smoking meth around them.
A search warrant executed on the home Jan. 7 found scales and pipes, smoking devices and supplies for selling meth in a tackle box and drug residue on night stands in both bedrooms. Officers noted filthy and unsanitary conditions around the home, including soiled clothes and garbage, a smell of cat urine, a non-working bathroom toilet, standing water in the bathtub and pans with leftover food crusted in.
The investigation found that Cubit, Ruch and Vinson weren’t making the meth but bought it for their own consumption and sometimes sold it to pay for bills since they didn’t have jobs.
— Steve Prestegard and Katjusa Cisar