Woman charged with running drug house after search of apartment

A 46-year-old woman is charged in Ozaukee County Circuit Court with running a drug house on First Avenue in Grafton after authorities searched her apartment earlier this month and found fentanyl and drug paraphernalia.

Christy C. Grosenick faces one felony count of maintaining a drug trafficking place and a misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia.

Two other people who were at the apartment when it was searched by authorities have also been charged. Tanya L. Gammon, 44, who lives with Grosenick, faces a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia. Her boyfriend, Alexander B. Cheshier, 42, of Saukville is charged with a second or subsequent offense of possession of narcotic drugs, a felony, and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to a criminal complaint, at 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 15, officers served a search warrant at the apartment. When they knocked on the door, someone from inside yelled “(expletive) off,” so the officers used a battering ram to break open the door.

Inside the apartment were Grosenick, Gammon, Cheshier and two other people. Officers searched Cheshier and found an empty syringe and small container with cocaine residue in it in his front pants pocket, the complaint states.

Officers also searched three upstairs bedrooms, and in the one used by Gammon and Cheshier they found a tealight candle containing a liquid suspected to be fentanyl, a syringe containing a liquid that tested positive for fentanyl, glass smoking pipes and a large number of syringes, according to the complaint.

Gammon told officers that she smokes crack cocaine and Cheshier uses heroin and fentanyl that he injects with the needles found in the room, the complaint states.

She said the man who supplies them with drugs brings powdered cocaine to the Grafton apartment and she and the man cook it with baking soda to make crack cocaine, adding that he was at the apartment the night before the search, according to the complaint.

Gammon said Grosenick is aware that the man brings cocaine to the apartment and, in fact, she and another woman buy drugs from him after he picks them up in Milwaukee, the complaint states.

Authorities also searched Grosenick’s bedroom and found pipes used to smoke crack cocaine with burnt resident on them and a spoon, syringes and naloxone, a medication used to reverse the effects of opioids, on the bed, according to the complaint.

Grosenick admitted she smokes crack cocaine and told authorities she rents the apartment and allows Gammon and another woman, who all use cocaine, to live there, the complaint states.

Cheshier is charged with a second or subsequent drug offense because in 2012 he was convicted in Langlade County of delivering cocaine and sentenced to four years in prison and four years of extended supervision.

During a July 16 court hearing, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Sandy Williams set bail for Grosenick and Cheshier at $750. Gammon’s bail was set at a $500 signature bond.