Tuesday, March 8, 2005
The government wants nearly $62,000 seized from bank accounts.
POLAND -- A Peachtree Court man is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday on drug charges, and his wife will be tried on related charges later this month.
Karen and H. Ronald Wilson were indicted in Cleveland federal court in August 2004, along with Timothy P. Mosley of East Leasure Avenue, New Castle. Mosley is a former Mohawk High School physical education teacher.
In October and December 2004, respectively, Mosley and Ronald Wilson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possession of a controlled substance. OxyContin is a powerful painkiller.
In December 2004, U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich sentenced Mosley to 2 1/2 years in prison, followed by three years' supervised release. He must participate in a 500-hour intensive drug treatment program while incarcerated.
On Feb. 24, Ronald Wilson's Boardman lawyer, John B. Juhasz Jr., filed a motion to postpone the sentencing hearing. As of Monday, Judge Aldrich had not ruled on the request.
Karen Wilson is charged with managing or controlling a place for the purpose of storing or distributing a controlled substance. Her trial is scheduled for March 28. Her Boardman lawyer, Albert A. Palombaro, could not be reached to comment.
Drug transfer
Last summer, Mosley was arrested in Pennsylvania after a drug transaction at the Wilsons' Poland home that included an undercover police source wearing a wire. The source had $4,000 in drug-buy money marked by New Castle police narcotics unit.
When Mosley returned to Pennsylvania, police used a search warrant to enter his vehicle and then arrested him. Officers found 153 OxyContin pills with a street value of $6,120.
Mosley admitted he and Ronald Wilson, described as unemployed or on disability, had been distributing OxyContin for three or four years.
Mosley said Wilson's wife frequently counted the money.
Ronald Wilson obtained prescriptions for the drug from a doctor, filled them through mail-order pharmacies, sold them to Mosley, who then sold them to others, the government said.
After Mosley's arrest, members of the local Drug Enforcement Administration task force used a search warrant to enter the Wilsons' residence at 1919 Peachtree Court. Agents seized 2,365 OxyContin pills and $3,810 of the marked money.
Karen Wilson, after being read her rights, acknowledged that Mosley bought pills from her husband and sometimes resold them. She said her husband hadn't worked in a long time and her annual income was $12,000, the government said.
"You had to pay for the house and two new cars, and this is how you did it?" a DEA agent asked about the drug profits. The agent said she answered, "Right."
The case is being prosecuted by Virginia D. Hearey and James L. Morford, assistant U.S. attorneys.
Forfeitures
In a related matter, Morford filed a forfeiture action last week in federal court for bank accounts held by the Wilsons. The prosecutor wants forfeited to the government $58,038 in a savings account in Karen Wilson's name and $3,896 in a checking account in Karen and Ronald Wilson's names.
The funds were seized in August 2004. Ronald Wilson submitted a claim to the DEA for the money, which required Morford to file the forfeiture action. The prosecutor said the money represents the proceeds of drug trafficking activities or money to be used to buy drugs.
Court papers show that the Wilsons attracted attention as far back as March 2000, when one of their neighbors contacted law enforcement, believing steroids were being sold out of the house. The neighbor frequently saw young men stopping at the Wilsons for a few minutes and then leaving.