Former Elk Mound man sentenced to one year in jail on meth charges

By LeAnn R. Ralph

MENOMONIE  — A 43-year-old former Elk Mound man now listed as having a Menomonie address has been sentenced to one year in jail on one felony count of possessing methamphetamine with intent to deliver.

Lonnie A. Eppers, along with his attorney, Roger M. Hillestad, appeared in Dunn County Circuit Court August 11 before Judge James Peterson for a sentencing hearing.

Eppers initially was charged with five felony counts of maintaining a drug trafficking place, manufacturing or delivering less than three grams of methamphetamine, manufacturing or delivering greater than three to ten grams of methamphetamine, possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine, felony bail jumping, and one misdemeanor count of possessing drug paraphernalia.

Judge Peterson accepted Eppers’ guilty plea at a March court hearing on the felony charge of possessing methamphetamine with intent to deliver and dismissed the remaining counts but ordered the dismissed counts be read into the record for sentencing.

At the August 11 sentencing hearing, Judge Peterson placed Eppers on four years of probation with the condition that he serve one year in jail. The first six month’s of Eppers’ jail sentence is to be served without Huber privileges.

In addition, Judge Peterson ordered $640 that had been seized be forfeited to the Wisconsin School Fund and ordered Eppers to pay $268 in court costs and a $250 DNA surcharge.

Eppers also was ordered by the court to complete Alcohol and Other Drug Assessment (AODA). During the length of the jail term and probation, Eppers will not be able to vote or possess any firearms.

According to the criminal complaint, Dunn County investigators arranged with a confidential informant to purchase methamphetamine from Eppers on two separate occasions in August of 2016 at his residence at 220 South Holly Avenue in Elk Mound.

Judge Peterson set a cash bail of $5,000 on September 26, 2016, and Eppers posted the cash bail on October 17, 2016.

During the March plea hearing, Judge Peterson ordered one felony count of possessing methamphetamine and one misdemeanor count of possessing drug paraphernalia from a separate case be dismissed but read into the record for sentencing.

In the earlier case, Judge Peterson had set a cash bond of $500 on August 2, 2016.

According to on-line court records, Eppers moved from Elk Mound to Wheeler in November of 2016 and moved to the Menomonie address in June of this year.

A jury trial had been scheduled in the Eppers case but was removed from the court calendar after the plea hearing.