Port woman’s drug spiral leads to prison

Sandra J. Koziol told jurors during her trial in August that she was clean and sober, even showing them that she didn’t have scars from drug use on her arms, and blamed a friend and addict for littering her Port Washington house with drugs and syringes.

A month later, during her sentencing hearing last week, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Steve Cain called her testimony “unbelievable,” District Attorney Adam Gerol wrote it off as lies and even Koziol, a once-successful businesswoman, seemed to come to grips with the reason her life unraveled earlier this year, leaving her sitting in jail for months facing a litany of felonies.

“Yes, I’m a drug addict, but for a long time I was sober,” she told Cain during the Sept. 22 sentencing hearing. “It just spiraled so out of control this last year. I’m so sorry my addiction got away from me.”

Koziol, whose serious trouble with the law began in February when authorities raided her home and charged her with running a drug house across from St. Mary’s Catholic Church, pleaded with Cain to spare her prison and sentence her to probation.

Cain instead adopted Gerol’s recommendation, calling it “spot on,” and sentenced the 59-year-old owner of Sandstone Homes Corp. to three years in prison followed by three years of extended supervision, as well as 12 years of probation.

He also sentenced her to six years in prison and six years of extended supervision on a number of other felonies but stayed those sentences, which means she will only have to serve them if she violates the conditions of her supervision.

“The public needs to understand that if you maintain a drug trafficking place in our community, there will be a significant consequence,” Cain said. 

A jury deliberated for just more than two hours during Koziol’s Aug. 10 trial before finding her guilty of four felonies — possession of heroin and methamphetamine and two counts of bail jumping.

Last week, Koziol pleaded guilty to two other felonies — maintaining a drug trafficking place and possession of methamphetamine — stemming from a related case, as well as a misdemeanor charge of second-offense driving while under the influence of an intoxicant in connection with a July 2020 traffic stop in the Town of Port Washington.

Gerol said Koziol is also expected to be charged in Milwaukee County with drug possession stemming from a March traffic stop in Bayside during which officers found “an awful lot of methamphetamine” in her vehicle. 

“In all these cases, you have drugs,” Gerol said. “Methamphetamine seems to be the common denominator. That was the drug she was using.”

And methamphetamine may explain Koziol’s outbursts during several of her court appearances, Gerol said.

“Consider the way she acted in court. She was angry. She just wanted out. She had that demon inside her that took control of her,” he said. “Methamphetamine almost changes the wiring in a permanent way in someone’s brain.”

Cain said a photo introduced as evidence during Koziol’s trial showing a potted plant in her bathroom filled with syringes illustrates the depth of her addiction.

“There’s certainly a deep, deep addiction issue here,” he said. “And it’s not lost on this court how insidious methamphetamine is in terms of the behavior it causes.”

Prison is also an appropriate sentence, Cain said, because there Koziol can receive treatment for her addiction, unlike in the county jail. He made her eligible for the Department of Correction’s substance abuse program after she has served 18 months in prison, which will give her the opportunity to reduce the time she is behind bars.

But Koziol’s lawyer, Perry Lieuallen, said Koziol knows how to live sober and could do so again if placed on probation.

“My client has a wonderful record of being sober,” he said. 

Evidence that Koziol was no longer sober was uncovered on Feb. 2 when the Ozaukee County Special Response Team raided her house at 6 a.m. to find her son, Blaine G. Koziol, 24, and his girlfriend in the basement, where he said they lived.

In Sandra Koziol’s upstairs bedroom, authorities found a glass pipe and bong, methamphetamine residue on a mirror and bags commonly used to package drugs.

In the basement, where Blaine Koziol lived, authorities found pipes, bongs, BHO wax, a digital scale with marijuana residue on it and a money counter.  A safe found in a basement closet contained $7,706 in cash, 43.2 grams of marijuana and BHO wax, according to a criminal complaint charging him with maintaining a drug trafficking place and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. He has pleaded not guilty to the felony charges. 

An inspection of Blaine Koziol’s cell phone revealed multiple messages about drug deals, the complaint states.

Sandra Koziol, who was not home at the time of the raid, was later arrested and released on bail, but she was not free for long. 

On March 16, police searched her house again and found heroin, methamphetamine, a grocery bag stuffed with $4,130 in small bills and drug paraphernalia strewn throughout the home. 

The search was prompted by a report of a man who escaped Koziol’s house on March 16 wearing only pants and one boot and ran to a nearby assisted living facility for help. 

Police officers who responded said he was bleeding and bruised and had clearly been beaten.

At Koziol’s house, officers found an ice pick and a significant amount of blood near an outside door. Inside, they found a bloody chair and blood spatter and a bloody handprint on the wall, according to the complaint.

The man told authorities at the time that two men he did not know beat and burned him while Koziol asked him about what he told police about drug dealing at her house, according to the criminal compliant filed in that case. 

Gerol charged Koziol with intimidation of a witness, false imprisonment and misdemeanor battery in addition to the drug charges stemming from the March search but dropped the charges related to the alleged attack just before Koziol’s trial because the victim and key witness disappeared, he said.