Pubdate: Sun, 21 May 2006 Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) Copyright: 2006 Journal Sentinel Inc. Contact: http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/submit.asp Website: http://www.jsonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/265 Author: Tom Kertscher Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) FROM DESTRUCTIVE PAST COMES LINK TO DEATHS Not counting his juvenile record, 23-year-old Ben Stibbe has had more than 50 encounters with the legal system, police and court records show. But the Grafton man's lengthy record of petty crimes - underage drinking and stealing items, ranging from booze to DVDs - masks a stunningly destructive past that has contributed to three people dying from drug overdoses in 3 1/2 years, prosecutors, police and parents say. Until Angela Raettig died of a heroin overdose in her Cedarburg home, Stibbe had never been charged with anything more than a misdemeanor. But now Stibbe is charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the 17-year-old girl's death and faces up to 40 years in prison if he is found guilty at trial next month. Co-defendant Caitlin Schuette of Cedarburg pleaded no contest and was found guilty last week of first-degree reckless homicide in Raettig's death. Stibbe's legal problems stem from being a "heavy user of controlled substances," starting when he was 11 or 12 and progressing to a years-long use of heroin, said his lawyer, William Mayer of West Bend. The substance abuse got so bad, police reports show, that Stibbe's parents kicked him out of their home and would allow him to sleep only in their front-yard bushes. At one point, Stibbe said he stole liquor from a Cedarburg grocery store five times in 18 days - including twice in the same afternoon. Police said Stibbe told them on several occasions that heroin was the motivation for his crimes. "He (has) lived for dope, and he manipulated the activities in his life to revolve around dope," Grafton Police Chief Charles Wenten said. "I don't know what brought him to this point in his life, but it certainly is a very bad place." Stibbe finished two years at Grafton High School before dropping out in 1999. By the fall of 2000, he was issued tickets for underage drinking twice within two weeks; a third came about a year later and a fourth the year after, police records show. Stibbe's problems grew more serious by 2002, when he had more than 20 encounters with police. Over the course of the year, Stibbe was issued his fourth ticket for underage drinking and failed to complete a court-ordered class on alcohol use. In August 2002, Stibbe was issued a theft citation after being caught leaving a Glendale grocery store with seven packs of cigarettes in his pants. Police said he told them he had a heroin problem and was in a methadone treatment program. In November 2002, Stibbe told Cedarburg police he stole liquor from a grocery store five times in 18 days - including twice in one day - because he had a bad drug problem and is "under extreme pressure from drug dealers," according to police records. Before the year ended, Stibbe would be connected with the first of four heroin overdoses. On Dec. 12, 2002, Lynn Smaxwill's 12-year-old son found his mother dead in their Grafton home. She had overdosed on heroin and cocaine, according to her death certificate. Police built what they said was a "strong circumstantial case" against Stibbe in Smaxwill's death, but no charges were filed. Stibbe's drug problems persisted but, by February 2004, after a short stint in jail, Stibbe was participating in a court-ordered drug treatment program. He was described as a "valued member of the (treatment) group" who discussed his "chronic addiction" honestly. By this point, the long-term drug abuse had damaged Stibbe's "cognitive functioning," according to court records. Within three months, Stibbe had been terminated from the drug treatment program for failing to cooperate. Finally, Stibbe's parents would not allow him to continue living at home, but they told him it was OK if he slept in the bushes in front of the home, which he did, according to a police report. Several weeks before Raettig's death on Nov. 30, Stibbe was linked to two other overdoses, one of them fatal. A frantic mother called Cedarburg police on Oct. 7 saying her 20-year-old son had overdosed on heroin and she was trying to find him. She said she didn't know where he was but believed that Stibbe was involved, police reports show. At nearly the same time, Stibbe called Grafton police from his home to complain that the 20-year-old man's mother was harassing him with repeated phone calls. Police determined that the man was in intensive care at a Milwaukee hospital, where he was treated and later released. Police said Stibbe eventually told them that he and his mother, Teri Stibbe, had picked up the man in Milwaukee after he called them and dropped him off at the hospital because he had eaten a rancid hamburger and was vomiting. Stibbe also complained to an officer, according to a Grafton police report, that "all of these kids' parents are constantly trying to blame him and his mother for all of their drug problems." Teri Stibbe declined to comment for this report. About a week later, Matt Kobiske was found dead in his bed in Grafton of what was determined to be a heroin-codeine overdose. His mother, Debbie Kobiske, said her son was with Stibbe the night before he died. No charges have been filed in Kobiske's death. Mayer, Stibbe's lawyer, would not comment on the three overdoses, other than to say that the Cedarburg-Grafton area is small and "people who do those sorts of drugs tend to hang out together." A trip to Milwaukee Angela Raettig, who had been treated for a heroin addiction, decided on Nov. 29 to celebrate getting her driver's license by doing heroin, according to a criminal complaint. Stibbe, Caitlin Schuette, Raettig and a Cedarburg man traveled to Milwaukee together. Stibbe told police that he bought heroin from his dealer in Milwaukee with money he got from Raettig and Schuette, and Schuette shared the heroin with the others, according to the complaint. Raettig returned home that night, and her mother found her dead in her bed the next morning. A medical examiner determined that she overdosed on heroin. On Dec. 1, the day after Raettig's death, Stibbe arranged for undercover officers to buy heroin in Milwaukee, according to a criminal complaint charging him with felony delivery of heroin. Stibbe was in jail on that charge, which is pending, until the homicide charge was filed against him. Stibbe remains in the Ozaukee County Jail.