Wisconsin man stands trial on local drug charges

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Bessemer — The trial of a La Crosse, Wisconsin, man facing three local drug charges got underway in Gogebic County Circuit Court Thursday following jury selection the day before.

Derrick Lee Menara, 43, is standing trial on charges of possessing methamphetamine with intent to deliver, conspiracy to possess meth with the intent to deliver, and maintaining a drug house. Menara is accused of traveling to the area to sell drugs in August 2020.

While here, he is alleged to have evaded law enforcement responding to a report of shoplifting from the Ironwood Walmart, allegedly had drugs and drug paraphernalia in his Ironwood motel room and was ultimately arrested in the Walmart parking lot several days after the initial incident.

Thursday’s proceedings began with statements from both attorneys providing a preview of their respective cases.

Gogebic County Prosecutor Nick Jacobs told jurors that, while Menara may not testify — as is his constitutional right — the prosecution would show that ultimately the defendant’s own words and communications with others would demonstrate his guilt.

“At the end of the day, … I think the evidence will suggest to you that Mr. Menara himself takes all of the guesswork out of this case; because he tells you he possessed with the intent to deliver, he tells us he did the deliveries, he tells us he did assist (a co-conspirator) in introducing him to others so he could sell these drugs, he tells us that he reached agreements with (that other person arrested in the case) and had a conspiracy going on, ... he tells us he also stayed at (the Ironwood motel) — that’s where someone’s drugs and paraphernalia were stored,” Jacobs said. “He’s our best witness, and you’re going to hear him through the presentation of our case.”

Menara’s defense attorney, Rudy Perhalla, described his client as being wrongfully accused and said there was no direct evidence that his client sold methamphetamine. Rather than selling drugs, Perhalla said his client was in the area visiting family and was innocent of the charges.

“What’s interesting in this case is what you’re not going to hear or what you’re not going to have as evidence,” Perhalla said in his opening statement to the jury. “You’re not going to have any evidence of any delivery of drugs to any particular person. … In fact, the evidence — what it will show is that my client, Mr. Menara, at no time had methamphetamine on him.”

Prosecution testimony

Following the opening statements, several local and state law enforcement personnel testified for the prosecution regarding their roles in the case.

One of the primary witnesses was Gogebic County Sheriff’s Department deputy Cody Smith, who was at the Walmart parking lot the night of Aug. 17, 2020, and helped gather information that led to the search of Menara’s motel room, as well as being on the scene when Menara was arrested in the Walmart parking lot on Aug. 20.

Smith testified he was called to Walmart on the night of Aug. 17 to assist Michigan State Police troopers responding to a report of shoplifting at the store where one suspect was on site in the parking lot and the other — which the prosecution said was Menara — had fled the scene on foot.

Smith was involved in questioning the suspect that was still on the scene — who, according to information presented in court Thursday, was Joshua Alan Perren.

Online court records show Perren is facing charges of possession of meth with intent to deliver and conspiracy to possess meth with intent to deliver in Gogebic County Circuit Court, and has a final pretrial conference scheduled for later this month.

Smith — who is also a part of the Gogebic Iron Area Narcotics Team — testified that a search of Perren allegedly turned up 204 small plastic bags that are sometimes used to package drugs, and Perren provided information about Menara and the motel the two were staying at.

Smith said he went to the motel on Cloverland Drive with another deputy and then sought a warrant to search the motel room due to a syringe that was visible through the room’s window. He said he also sought a warrant for the SUV that Perren and Menara had been in at Walmart. The subsequent search of the vehicle led to the discovery of a small digital scale, which according to testimony is a type that can be used in the sale of controlled substances.

Smith said his next interaction with Menara was on Aug. 20 in the Walmart parking lot when members of GIANT arrested Menara, but that he primarily interacted with the woman who was in the driver’s seat of the vehicle Menara was in at the time.

Smith also testified regarding Menara’s phone that was taken into evidence at the time of his arrest and text messages that were retrieved from it. Smith read a number of messages Menara sent from the phone that discussed hiding from the cops prior to his arrest and others that Smith said involved efforts to sell drugs or collect money from people.

During his cross-examination of Smith, Perhalla questioned the chain of custody for the phone and whether some of the messages were about methamphetamine or other forms of drugs. Smith acknowledged that no text message included the words meth or methamphetamine, but he said some of the words that were in the texts were understood to be code words for the drug — although Perhalla suggested that they could also reference other controlled substances instead.

Perhalla used his cross examination to raise the issue that no drugs, money or other items that are sometimes associated with the sale of controlled substances were found in Menara’s possession when he was searched at the time of his arrest. Perhalla also raised the issue of whether the drugs that were found in the motel room were a small enough quantity that they could be considered for personal use rather than indicate a sales operation.

The other member of the law enforcement community that spent a significant amount of time testifying Thursday was Ironwood Public Safety Department Sgt. Matt Sterbenz, who is also the leader of the GIANT drug team.

Sterbenz testified he took the photographs during the search of the motel room, including those of syringes and other things he said were often used as drug paraphernalia, as well as several substances suspected to be controlled substances.

According to results from the state police crime lab for tests that were discussed during Sterbenz’s testimony, some of the substances found in the room during the search were determined to be fentanyl and meth, with the test results showing close to 1.37 grams of meth were seized during the search.

Sterbenz also testified regarding his interview with Menara on Aug. 20 in the Walmart parking lot when he was arrested and the jury watched a portion of the interview that was filmed on Sterbenz’s body camera.

In the video, Menara initially said he was just supposed to introduce Perren to various locals interested in purchasing drugs in exchange for money and the ride to Ironwood. After Sterbenz said on camera he suspected Menara was telling part of the truth and pressed him further during the interview, they discussed the amount of drugs Menara thought various people named in the tape had received.

During Perhalla’s cross examination, Sterbenz acknowledged that none of the text messages brought into evidence from Menara’s phone that discussed alleged drug transactions were from prior to the initial Aug. 17 shoplifting report. Perhalla also questioned Sterbenz on his tactics during the interview, asking why much of the initial part of the interview when Menara was denying his involvement in selling drugs was left out of the portion of footage the prosecution played. He also raised the issue that Sterbenz had a drawn weapon when he initially approached Menara and that Menera had his hands cuffed behind his back during the interview as factors Perhalla suggested could have contributed to Menara saying anything incriminating.

Sterbenz said the drawn weapon was for safety as they had received a tip that Menara may have been armed and that he believed the information Menara gave him was legitimate because he felt it was verified elsewhere in the investigation.

As with Smith’s cross examination, Perhalla raised the issue that no drugs were found on Menara and whether the amounts found should be considered as just enough for personal use — the last claim being an idea which Sterbenz and the other officers questioned on the matter pushed back on, saying the amount that can be considered for personal use varies depending on the person and that GIANT had performed controlled buys in the past with quantities of methamphetamine smaller than those in this case.

Along with Smith and Sterbenz, the jury heard testimony from IPSD Sgt. Brandon Snyder, who oversaw the search of the motel room and transported the seized SUV from Walmart to the public safety building where it was secured; Hurley Police Department officer Josiah Hewitt, who helped with search of the motel room; GCSD Det. Sgt. Jorge Cruz, who was present at Menara’s arrest; and an MSP-contracted digital forensic analyst who retrieved the data from Menara’s cell phone.

Thursday ended with Jacobs resting the prosecution’s case.