MAN GETS 15 YEARS FOR ROLE IN DRUG RING

A judge sentenced Brian Lawrence to more than 15 years in prison Monday as
punishment for the four years he helped manage a drug conspiracy.

"That is no small amount of time that is taken out of the heart of your
young adult life," U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller told Lawrence, 28,
of Milwaukee, in handing down the 188-month sentence. "Too often, people in
your situation labor under the false assumption that you will never get
caught," Stadtmueller said. "But like anything else in life, there is a day
of reckoning."

Stadtmueller also sentenced Lawrence to five years of probation after he is
released and fined him $3,000.

Lawrence cried Monday as he apologized to his family.

Lawrence earlier pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute more than 50
kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 pounds of marijuana. Federal authorities said
he was one of the leaders of a conspiracy and had several people working for
him in the drug trade.

"Your involvement in this case was among the most significant this court has
seen in recent history," Stadtmueller said.

The drug-dealing would not have happened, the judge said, "if you spent even
10 minutes a week at Froedtert Hospital and saw all the newborns born with 2
1/2 strikes against them as cocaine babies."

Checked-by: Don Beck