Man involved in drug-induced death re-sentenced after violating probation

MONROE – A Brodhead man will spend nearly three years in prison after he was accused of helping to supply the drugs that killed an Albany man last June and then violating the terms of his initial probation by getting a fifth OWI arrest in Vernon County.

The reckless homicide charge was dismissed for Matthew B. Riese, 45, of Albany, in Green County Circuit Court last March. He and Shannon J. Woollums of Brodhead were both accused of supplying opioids that led to the overdose death of a 37-year-old earlier in 2023, according to a criminal complaint also filed in Green County Circuit Court.

But as part of an apparent plea deal, he was convicted on March 6, 2024, of a single felony count of manufacturing narcotics as a party to a crime, and received a withheld sentence and four years’ probation. One of the requirements of that probation was maintaining absolute sobriety.

According to court records, he was stopped by officers in Vernon County on April 27, 2024, and arrested for his fifth OWI charge.

In court Monday before Circuit Judge Faun M. Phillipson for re-sentencing after probation revocation, a witness and Riese’s attorney said he has struggled mightily with mental illness and alcoholism and that family and other efforts to get him into long-term treatment to get treatment for his dual diagnosis have failed.

“He just broke down and ended up on the sauce,” said his attorney, Michael Murphy.

Riese, for his part, hung his head and wiped his eyes as the judge spoke and heard testimony about how he is an experienced union carpenter who works very hard and wants to start a new life, but is haunted by serious mental illness and alcoholism.

“I got complacent,” he told the judge, before retaliating. “My mental health has gotten so bad, that’s all I have to say.”

In resentencing Riese, Phillipson said the law forces her to protect the public while balancing the need for the defendant to get the intensive help he needs.

The incident that led to the first reckless homicide arrests began on June 1, 2023, just before 3:55 p.m., with a 911 call of a medical emergency on 6th Street in Albany.

Officers, Albany EMS and First Response and Green County EMS were all dispatched to the home for a report of a possible overdose. But despite attempts at life-saving measures, first responders were unable to revive the victim. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene by the Green County Coroner’s Office, police said.

Another victim was apparently saved by two doses of Narcan while police were on the scene.

Woollums, Riece’s co-defendant in the murder case, was sentenced to four years’ detention/probation and 90 days in jail with Huber privileges for his role.