kris toledo of walworth started rescuing cats four years ago and … · •carol a. “perky”...

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Sunday, September 15, 2019 • Our 174th year • $4

Classified . . . . . . . . D-E

Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . C

Lotteries . . . . . . . . . 10A

Nation/World . . . . 12B

Opinion . . . . . . . .8A-9A

Puzzles . . . . . . . . . . . 5E

State . . . . . . . . . . . . .5A

TV/Advice . . . . . . . . .4COBITUARIES AND DEATH NOTICES, 10A

•Arlene M. Blaga•Joseph Robert Hookham•Brent Richard Lowe•Ann Martin•Jacqulyn L. Morgan•Robert J. “Bob” Nordstrom

•James Elliott Paschal•Carol A. “Perky” Perkins•Christine M. Pofahl•Patricia Ann Quade•Donna Jean Saller•George Douglas Schmidt

•Wayne “Sonny” Vogels•Lois Kathryn Wolf•Patricia A. Zdrojewski•Ronald J. Zirk

Offering shelterKris Toledo of Walworth

started rescuing cats

four years ago and left her

job three months ago so

she could help abandoned

animals. Page 3A

Brewers keep hopes aliveHome runs by Mike Moustakas

and Yasmani Grandal helped

Milwaukee to a 5-2 win over host

St. Louis on Saturday, keeping the

Brewers within a game of the Cubs

for an NL wild-card spot. Page 1B

TODAY’S WEATHERHigh 81 | Low 62

Cloudy, warm and humid

More on 11A©2019 Adams Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

By Frank Schultz

fschultz@gazettextra.com

JANESVILLEGeorgie Wilson had never been on

a boat of any kind until Saturday.

During her first day on the water at

Traxler Park, she was one of 20 pad-

dlers who won a heat in Janesville’s

first dragon boat races.

As the victors walked off the dock,

other competitors lined up and

formed a tunnel with their paddles

crossed overhead to welcome them.

Minutes later, Wilson discussed

what surprised her on her first ven-

ture on the water, “boat tipping.”

Wilson learned the importance

of stability in a canoe-like, 46-foot-

long dragon boat, but no boat tipped

over, and it appeared no one fell into

the water during the races. Although

most of the 250-plus competitors got

wet.

“I was so happy about winning.

When they said KANDU Kukulkans

won first place, I was, like, ‘Yeah! Joy!’”

said the 29-year old from Orfordville.

A kukulkan, of course, is a Mayan

feathered serpent deity.

And dragon boat racing comes

from China, where races are held to

celebrate the ancient poet Qu Yuan.

And KANDU is the name of the

local nonprofit organization that has

Dragons on the water

By Frank Schultz

fschultz@gazettextra.com

JANESVILLEFormer Rock County

sheriff ’s Deputy Keegan J. Kelly got drunk and assaulted his girl-f r i e n d d u r i n g a trip to W i s c o n -sin Dells in Febru-ary, taunt-

ing her by saying no one would believe her if she reported it.

He had hit her before, the woman told Lake Delton police, and he always played the same song before he did it.

The chorus of the song, “The Red” by the band Chevelle, goes like this: “So lay down/The threat is real/When his sight/Goes red again/Seeing red again/Seeing red again.”

Kelly even had threat-ened her children, the woman told police.

Former Janesville police officer Jose D. Tor-res got drunk and ran into a pole with his 9-year-old son in the car last fall. His pre-liminary breath test regis-tered 0.16, twice the legal

limit.B o t h

incidents l ed to c r imina l c h a r g e s and resig-nations by the offi-cers.

Both led to the officers resigning.

Both shocked the com-munity.

Such instances are rare, but many wondered how these men were allowed to become law enforcement officers with a duty to pro-tect and serve their com-munities, something they failed to do in their private lives.

Chief Deputy Barb Till-man of the sheriff ’s office said every time a deputy or jailer is terminated for misconduct, she goes back to their application mate-rials—did they miss some-thing?

Every time, the answer

is no.

Deep backgroundAnd that’s remarkable

because the application process to become an offi-cer of the law in Janesville and with the sheriff ’s office

Before hiring, local cops face extensive checks. Sometimes it’s not enough

How much is enough?

Photo illustration by Angela Major/amajor@gazettextra.com

By Claire Galofaro and Lindsay Whitehurst

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITYThe pills arrived in thousands

of mailboxes across the country, round and blue, with the markings of pharmaceutical-grade oxycodone stamped into the surface.

Prosecutors would later call them “poison”—counterfeits containing fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid that has written a deadly new chap-ter in the American opioid epidemic. They were shipped from the suburbs of Salt Lake city.

That’s where a

clean-cut, 29-year-

old college dropout

named Aaron Shamo

made himself a mil-

lionaire building a

fentanyl trafficking

empire with not

much more than his

computer and a few

friends.

For three weeks this summer,

those suburban millennials climbed

onto the witness stand at his federal

trial and offered an unprecedented

window into how fentanyl bought

and sold online has transformed the

global drug trade. There was no tes-

timony of gangland murders or any-

thing that a wall at the southern bor-

der might stop. Shamo called him-

self a “white-collar drug dealer,” drew

in co-workers from his time at eBay

and peppered his messages to them

with smiley-face emojis. His attorney

called him a fool; his defense was that

he isn’t smart enough to be a kingpin.

How he and his friends managed to

flood the country with a half-million

fake oxycodone pills reveals the ease

Photos by Angela Major/amajor@gazettextra.comMelissa Kerry, a member of the KANDU Industries dragon boat racing team, is greeted by high-fives from competitors after the boat race Saturday at Traxler Park in Janesville.

Michael Blanca, the drummer for the KANDU Industries dragon boat racing team, raises his drum stick in the air after winning a race Saturday.

An empire of deathHow a college dropout built a drug business with a computer and a few friends

Shamo

Kelly

Torres

Turn to DRAGONS on Page 11A

Saturday event employs 46-foot dragon boats

to raise money for KANDU

Turn to FENTANYL on Page 6A

Turn to CHECKS on Page 7A