DELLS MAN SENTENCED FOR DRUG CONVICTION

A Wisconsin Dells man was sentenced Friday to serve 60 days in jail
and four years of probation Friday for delivering marijuana to an
undercover Wisconsin Dells police officer last year.

Nathan Beal, 31, was arrested July 12 and charged with delivery of
marijuana, maintaining a drug trafficking place and delivery of drug
paraphernalia. He pleaded no contest to the delivery charge Friday. As
part of the plea agreement, the other charges were dismissed. He also
was ordered to pay $539 in fines.

The sting was part of a series of undercover operations conducted by
Wisconsin Dells Police Officer Wayne Thomas, a 2005 graduate of
Pardeeville High School. One month after Beal's arrest, Thomas'
undercover investigations led to the arrest of 14 adults and eight
juveniles for drug-related crimes.

Thomas first went undercover in May 2006 and spent time hanging around
Bowman Park, where he met many of the individuals from whom he would
later purchase drugs.

"I pretty much just had to go infiltrate their groups and see what I
could get into, I guess," he told the Dells Events in September 2006.
"Anything illegal that I could get into I was trying to get myself
into with them."

He observed burglaries, and the exchange of various drugs such as
marijuana, different forms of cocaine, ecstasy and heroin. He attended
underage drinking parties and became privy to incidents of vandalism,
he said.

Thomas has remained with the department as a patrol officer. According
to the criminal complaint in Beal's case, Thomas purchased $70 worth
of marijuana - about 18 grams - from Beal at his Broadway Street apartment.

Beal must report to the Dane County Jail - where he asked to be
detained so that he could still go to work through the Huber program -
on June 8.