Brown County Judge Tosses Fentanyl Case After 1,033 Failed Tries to Find a Defense Lawyer

A Brown County judge dismissed all five drug charges Friday against a woman accused in a Chicago-to-Green Bay fentanyl ring, one day after the Wisconsin State Public Defender's office told the court it had made 1,033 attempts to find her a lawyer and come up empty.

Judge Donald Zuidmulder threw out the case against Kyla Sanache, 35, on the court's own motion, according to court records cited by FOX 11. Her charges included conspiracy to deliver more than 50 grams of fentanyl, WBAY reported. Her preliminary hearing, which state law requires within 10 days of charging for a defendant in custody, was postponed at least 10 times in the two-plus years the case sat open.

It isn't clear whether prosecutors can refile. The court's minute sheet cites a 2023 appeals ruling from another Brown County case, State v. Butler, in which the charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning the state could bring them again. The Brown County District Attorney's office hadn't answered FOX 11's request for comment, and the public defender's office declined to discuss the case with WBAY, citing ongoing litigation.

Five co-defendants from the 2024 bust have already been sentenced, with prison terms running from six years to 40 years for Felton Currie, whom police called the ringleader, FOX 11 reported. Sanache's case ended without a lawyer ever being found for her, and without a trial.

A Right Guaranteed, a Lawyer Not Found

The Sixth Amendment entitles people charged with crimes to a lawyer, and in Wisconsin the State Public Defender handles that obligation for defendants who can't pay. When its staff attorneys have a conflict of interest, the office has to recruit a private attorney willing to take the case at the state's rate. That rate is $100 an hour, raised from $70 in 2023, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. For nearly 20 years before 2020, it was $40, the lowest in the country, Wisconsin Watch reported.

The office has told lawmakers that private attorneys in Wisconsin average about $248 an hour. For the 2025-27 budget, the agency and Gov. Tony Evers asked for $125 an hour on the most serious felony cases, an increase the fiscal bureau estimated would cover about 3,396 cases a year and cost $1.43 million in 2026-27. The Republican-controlled Legislature rejected it. Lawmakers approved 12.5 of the 52.5 support staff positions the public defender requested while adding 42 prosecutor positions statewide, Wisconsin Watch found.

Private lawyers handle roughly 37% to 40% of public defender cases. One private attorney told FOX 11 last year he'd lose money taking an appointment. State Public Defender Jennifer Bias told the station that many private lawyers are overloaded and that better pay "would help bring them into the fold."

Brown County's Backlog

Sanache's case was one of hundreds stalled in Brown County. In September 2025, the public defender's list of cases needing private counsel included 382 Brown County misdemeanor and felony cases, FOX 11 reported. Wisconsin Watch found the median open felony case in the county was 373 days old, and on July 30, 2025, the Brown County Jail held 107 people over its 750-inmate capacity. Only about one in five people in the jail was serving a sentence, and the average stay was 256 days.

Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach told WBAY the county has about 5,000 backlogged cases and blamed shortages of judges, prosecutors and public defenders alike. "It's the system that needs to be fixed," he said. He said he didn't know whether Sanache's charges would be refiled.

Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, said in September 2025 that he was drafting a bipartisan bill adding 64.5 assistant district attorneys, 22 public defenders, 41 public defender support staff and five judges, one of them in Brown County, at an estimated $14 million to $20 million. Steffen, who called himself a fiscal conservative, told FOX 11 higher pay for appointed attorneys "may be something we have to add."

Appeals Still Pending

Sanache's co-defendant James Grandberry, who faces 14 counts, spent more than 14 months in jail after his July 11, 2024, arrest with no lawyer and no preliminary hearing. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals agreed in August 2025 to hear his challenge. He's asking the court to require release on bond when a jailed defendant has no lawyer after seven days, and to bar prosecutors from refiling when appointments are excessively delayed.

Attorney General Josh Kaul's office conceded in a March brief that Grandberry's right to a timely preliminary hearing was violated. It asked the appeals court to order dismissal without prejudice, which would let prosecutors refile, and argued the case doesn't call for "sweeping new rules of law." FOX 11 reported Grandberry is scheduled for trial next week while the appeal remains undecided.

Existing case law generally lets prosecutors try again. In State v. Nhia Lee, a 2022 appeals ruling found a 113-day delay violated the defendant's rights but dismissed the charges without prejudice. The Wisconsin Supreme Court took the case, heard arguments, then dismissed it as improvidently granted, and Justice Rebecca Dallet wrote that the court was leaving questions about the state's appointment system unresolved. In Butler, the defendant waited 321 days to finish an initial appearance, and appeals Judge Gregory Gill Jr. faulted the Brown County court for never considering appointing a lawyer at county expense.

A separate class action, Thomas v. Evers, filed in Brown County Circuit Court in August 2022 by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and its Wisconsin affiliate, seeks to have lawyers appointed within 14 days. Wisconsin Watch reported the plaintiffs documented at least 8,445 defendants who waited 30 days or more for a lawyer since 2019. A Brown County judge denied class certification on Jan. 13, and the plaintiffs filed their final brief in their appeal in June.