PAIR SENTENCED FOR DRUG-DEALING ROLES

Men Receive Prison Terms Of Nine And Six Years

Waukesha - Two drug dealers from Waukesha County were sentenced to
prison Friday for their roles in storing and selling hundreds of
pounds of marijuana in the Milwaukee and Green Bay areas.

Despite their lawyers' pleas for probation or shorter prison terms,
Circuit Judge Michael Bohren imposed a nine-year prison term for
Christopher Bering, 26, of Sussex, and a six-year term for Gary Pagel,
27, of Menomonee Falls.

A third man involved, David Lex, 26, of Milwaukee, was previously
sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the drug trafficking
between 1997 and 1999.

Assistant District Attorney William Roach sought those exact prison
terms, saying the men needed to be differentiated from the thousands
of low-level drug dealers who sell a little on the side to help feed
their personal drug addictions.

Bering, Roach said, admitted he got involved for money and for the
material goods that follow.

State drug enforcement agents who caught the three men conducting a
15-pound marijuana sale in December 1999 later found and seized nearly
$200,000, cars and a 1998 Bayliner boat, Roach said.

"This was a case about greed and money," Roach said. "Mr. Bering was a
flashy guy (with a) fancy boat, fancy cars."

Drug dealing a sideline

But Bering's lawyer, Patrick Brennan, said that Bering held down a
full-time job for eight years and kept working at the same time he was
dealing on the side.

Bering and Lex had a marijuana source in Arizona and the two often
brought the drugs up to Milwaukee. At least once Pagel helped cut
those drug bales into one-pound quantities for sale. And he would
drive them up to Green Bay to distribute, Roach and Brennan said.

Roach quoted Bering in a report in which Bering told a sentencing
consultant that "money was like a drug. . . . The whole process
consumes you. There was just no getting out of it."

One Milwaukee woman was quoted in a criminal complaint as telling
investigators that she stored marijuana at her home for Bering in
exchange for $500 each time he dropped drugs off. The complaint says
she reported seeing amounts ranging from 75 to more than 250 pounds of
marijuana, one time as much as 500 pounds.

But in court Friday, Brennan as well as Pagel's attorney, Michael
Fitzgerald, said that that woman and others disputed those amounts and
said they were not that high.

Regardless, Brennan acknowledged the amounts of drugs trafficked were
"substantial."

John Doe probe used

Roach and drug agents considered the operation important enough to
convene a secret John Doe investigation to help determine the scope
and responsibility of players involved. John Doe hearings are usually
held behind closed doors and allow prosecutors to subpoena witnesses
and collect evidence to determine whether to file charges.

A John Doe hearing presided over by Waukesha County Circuit Judge J.
Mac Davis was terminated before conclusion when attorneys for the trio
of men reached plea agreements with Roach that resulted in charges.

Bering and Pagel pleaded guilty and were convicted of felony delivery
of marijuana and felony conspiracy to deliver marijuana.

Brennan argued for a five-year prison term for Bering, noting that
that was what Lex received. Roach said he considered Pagel to have had
a much smaller role than that of Lex and Bering.

Roach had planned on Lex and Bering both ending with terms of about
nine years. But that plan failed when a Milwaukee County circuit judge
decided earlier this month not to add four years to Lex's already
five-year term. Lex had cases in both counties.

Bad said to outweigh good

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren applauded Bering and
Pagel for being hard workers who had helped other people in the
community, according to letters of support filed in court.

But he said that their good acts were outweighed by the harm they
imposed on the community by feeding addicts' habits and profiting by
illegal enterprises.

"You put all these energies into making money - which is great, this
is America," Bohren told Pagel. "But you were successful in an illegal
operation."

Calling the men "high-level purveyors of drugs," Bohren ordered Pagel
to pay $20,000 in fines and Bering to pay $80,000.

After serving his six-year prison term, Pagel will spend four years on
probation. Bering will be on probation for eight years after his term,
Bohren ruled.