Drug charges filed following pot bust 
by Karyn Eckert
The Star News
February 25, 2010 —  Criminal complaints were filed Monday in Taylor County Circuit Court charging multiple felonies against the occupants of a Town of Taft residence revealed to contain a marijuana growing operation.
William “Billy” A. Grantham, 24, Stanley, and Brittany M. Meeker, 22, Thorp, are each charged with manufacture/deliver THC–1,000 to 2,500 grams, maintaining a drug trafficking place and possession with intent to deliver THC–200 to 1,000 grams, all felonies. Grantham is also charged with two counts of felony possession of THC–2nd and 17 counts of possession of drug paraphernalia. In addition to the three felony charges, Meeker is charged with 17 counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and one count of misdemeanor possession of THC.
A third person who was also in the residence at the time law enforcement searched it was also charged. Thomas J. Keppert, 46, Cadott, is facing one felony charge of possession of THC–2nd and a misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia as party to a crime. He was charged as a repeater which could add to his sentence if he is convicted.
The arrests are the result of an investigation that began in January when a Taylor County Sheriff’s Department detective was contacted by a Chippewa Falls Police Department investigator. According to the criminal complaint filed Monday, a person the investigator had arrested told him there were two individuals growing marijuana at the Town of Taft residence, including Grantham. The informant said he had been at the residence in the fall of 2008 and saw “up to or over 100 marijuana plants growing in the basement of the residence.” He also said he had friends who still frequented the residence and knew someone who had received pot from the residence recently. He also said he "witnessed Billy sell marijuana by the ounce to a lot of random people that came to the residence."
The detective contacted the owner of the residence who said he rents the property out to Grantham and Meeker. The detective then obtained electrical power records from Jump River Electric Cooperative from January 2007 to January 2010. The records showed Grantham’s name on the account since August 2008.
The records showed from January 2007 to June 2008 when a previous tenant lived at the residence, the total bill averaged $107.21 per month. From September 2008 to December 2009, the bill averaged $214.53. The detective also noticed usage soared way above normal levels from November 2008 to April 2009 and again from August 2009 to December 2009. During these time periods, use averaged $240.77 per month. In those same months (November 2007 to April 2008) with the prior tenant, the bill averaged $110.06. The detective noted the pattern coincided with information that Grantham moved the marijuana growing operation outdoors during the summer months and indoors during winter.
The sheriff’s department was granted a search warrant to use a thermal imaging device. The device showed substantial hot spots indicated in an unattached garage, but no visible reason for the heat source. There was also a high heat thermal image at the base of the residence near the sill plate between the top of the basement and structural walls.
A request for a no-knock search warrant from the Taylor County Circuit Court was granted. The warrant was executed on February 3 at approximately 8 a.m. Upon entry to the residence, Grantham, Meeker and Keppert were taken into custody.
Officers found marijuana pipes and processed marijuana in plain view in the living area and a large number of plants growing in a bedroom which had been converted into a “marijuana growing room.”
When officers read the warrant to Grantham and Meeker, the detective reported, “Both Billy and Brittany made comments that they were aware of the marijuana growing and both wanted me to just let them show me where ‘everything’ was located so we didn't tear the residence apart looking for the illegal items.”
Keppert told law enforcement he was “only at the residence to fix a stove in the basement and nothing else and didn't know anything about what was going on.” He later admitted at jail he smoked marijuana at the residence with Billy the night before.
A loaded Ruger 22 magnum pistol was located in plain view next to the couch where Keppert had been sitting. Keppert denied knowing the pistol was there. Grantham admitted the pistol belonged to him.
Also located was a notebook with handwritten notes between Meeker and Grantham that talked about hiding marijuana and pipes and taking care of the marijuana plants.
In the converted bedroom, officers found 30 medium sized growing pots with soil with 26 visible plants. Four pots did not have a plant. The room also contained grow lights, fluorescent lights, light hoods, a digital thermometer, fans, mylar sheeting, 163 growing pots with no soil which were stacked together and a heat radiator. Among the items located in a hallway outside the room were a carbon dioxide tank regulator, two pressure tanks of carbon dioxide, bags of grow solution, a new package of door/window alarms, soil tester, timer, blocks of plant start media, seven books and magazines for the cultivation and growing of marijuana, and a large garbage bag filled with garbage, starter plant trays, dead marijuana plants and marijuana leaves. A “large amount” of marijuana stems was located in the basement of the residence.
Among the many items located in other areas of the house and adjacent property and taken as evidence were baggies and jars containing marijuana, containers with “roaches” (marijuana cigarette butts), numerous smoking devices with black residue, marijuana grinders, rolling papers, cash, photographs of marijuana plants in a duffel bag belonging to Keppert, a “cocaine bullet” grinder covered with a white powdery substance believed to be cocaine, marijuana cultivation magazines, a digital scale, a rifle with scope, power transformers and three boxes of .22 bullets.
Investigators also confiscated nine quart jars filled with a moldy substance believed to be a failed attempt to grow Psilocybin, or "psychedelic mushrooms.” Five jars were found in a bedroom closet and the other four were in the attached garage.
Officers also located a figurine inside a safe in a school bus on the property that contained five orange pills determined to be dextroamphetamine, sold under the brand name Adderall. The drug is a psychostimulant and schedule II narcotic used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
A total of 646.5 grams of processed marijuana was located and nine quart jars possibly containing mushrooms were taken to Wausau crime lab for testing.
Meeker declined to speak to law enforcement, but Grantham told detectives it was his first attempt at growing marijuana and he did not sell it, but would give it away to anyone who asked. “Billy told me he usually buys his marijuana but it has been getting expensive so he decided to grow his own,” one detective wrote in his report.
Grantham also told another detective he thought the ordeal was a joke and didn’t think it was a big deal. He said he had been smoking marijuana since he was 15. “He then went on to tell me that he feels smoking marijuana makes him a better person,” the detective wrote. “He told me that he needs the marijuana to keep his life going and just doesn't like to pay the idiots he is buying it from.”
Grantham said he had been living at the residence for two years and just started growing marijuana. He said he found the equipment online and obtained it in Madison. He also said all processed marijuana was purchased from others and he was having a hard time growing it because his plants were infested with spider mites and they were killing them. Grantham said he had planned to attempt growing them hydroponically and he thought the moldy substance in the jars was food taken out of the freezer.
The detective noted Grantham seemed more concerned with the amount of money the Taylor County Sheriff’s Department had spent coming out to his house and arresting him than on anything else. “He felt the money that we had expended on him could have been used better somewhere else,” the detective wrote in his report.
Keppert said he and Grantham had smoked pot and watched movies the night before, but he did not know about the marijuana growing there. "He also told me that a law had been signed in Wisconsin legalizing marijuana," reported the officer who told him he was mistaken.
If convicted on all counts, Grantham would face a maximum of nearly 32 years in prison and/or a fine approaching $90,000. Meeker will face a maximum of more than 18 years in prison and/or a fine of $54,500 if she is convicted on all charges. Keppert could be fined up to $10,500 or imprisioned for up to four years if convicted, though more time could be added due to his status as a repeater.
At a bond hearing following their arrest, Judge Ann Knox-Bauer ordered a $500 cash bond for Grantham and a $1,000 signature bond for Meeker. Both are scheduled to be in court on March 2 to make their initial appearances.
Judge Knox-Bauer ordered a $1,000 cash bond for Keppert. He will make his initial appearance on March 16.

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