GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A judge denied Cassie Nygren’s request for a sentence modification on convictions for providing the drugs which killed a pregnant woman, and delivering drugs to other jail inmates.
Nygren, 32, is the daughter of former state lawmaker John Nygren. He has said his daughter’s struggle with addiction prompted him to sponsor various bills aimed at combating the opioid epidemic.
In February 2020, Cassie Nygren was sentenced to 10 years in prison on a conviction of first-degree reckless homicide for providing the drugs which killed Jennifer Skeen in 2017. Nygren was sentenced to an additional three years for “delivering illegal articles to inmates” after working with others to have postcards and letters delivered to the jail with drugs hidden inside.
Last month, Nygren’s attorneys argued because Judge John Zakowski made comments during sentencing that she should not get credit for the time served while waiting for the case to be resolved resulted her sentence being improperly extended. A prosecutor argued the judge was quite deliberate about the reasons for the sentence, and urged that motion be denied.
In a seven-page ruling released Thursday, Judge Zakowski reaffirmed the original sentence.
“While in hindsight the court realizes it could have been more articulate to avoid any misinterpretation, what is clear is the court early on stated it was going to impose consecutive sentences for very serious crimes in two separate files. The court referenced the Gray sentence of 12 years for a number of offenses, including the death of the victim. The court noted the defendant and Gray were “joined at the hip” and considered it a mitigating circumstance in imposing a total sentence of 10 years initial confinement in her homicide file. The court then ordered an appropriate sentence for her “intolerable” behavior of selling drugs in jail and imposed a consecutive sentence. While admonishing the defendant that such criminal behavior while in jail should affect her credit, the court properly awarded her full sentence credit,” Zakowski wrote.
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