State Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Brantner Drug Possession Case

The WIsconsin Supreme Court has agreed to take on a drug case involving Dennis Brantner, the man convicted of murdering Berit Beck in Fond du Lac County in 1990. Brantner is appealing a conviction for smuggling drugs into the Fond du Lac County Jail in 2015. An assortment of pills was found in Brantner’s boot as he was booked into the jail after being transported from Kenosha County. Brantner was sentenced by Judge Peter Grimm in July of 2016 to six years and seven months in prison after being found guilty of three counts of possession of narcotic drugs on or near a jail, possession of a controlled substance and five counts of felony bail jumping. A Wisconsin appeals court upheld the conviction in January, but the defense appealed to the Supreme Court.

 

The appeal raises the question whether constitutional protections against double jeopardy prevent a defendant, in this case Brantner, from being punished twice for possessing pills containing different doses of the same substance. The appeal also questions whether an individual’s rights are violated when they are arrested in one county with controlled substances and transported in police custody to a different county where the substances are taken from them during the booking process – and then a trial is held for possession of those substances in the destination county.

 

Brantner was sentenced in March of 2018 for the murder of Berit Beck in Fond du Lac County in July of 1990.