FOND DU LAC JURY ACQUITS MAN IN METHAMPHETAMINE CONSPIRACY TRIAL

May 17, 2024, Fond du Lac, WI.  At 7:00 p.m. after a four-day Jury trial, a Fond du Lac jury found Jason J. Norton of Detroit, Not Guilty of Conspiracy to Deliver Methamphetamine greater than 50g, a class C felony.  Norton had faced up to 25 years initial confinement and a total maximum sentence of up to 40 years in state prison.

Norton, who was 23 years old at the time, had maintained his innocence since charges were filed on November 21, 2022.  Investigators and the prosecution theorized that Norton was part of a drug ring importing methamphetamine from the Detroit area to Fond du Lac. 

Norton was represented by Attorney Daniel Kaminsky, “From the defense point of view, investigators were uninterested in Norton’s side of the story, and appeared to actively ignore evidence establishing that their informants were not truthful, including phone location data that proved he was not present in Wisconsin during the much of the time period the informants claimed he met with them in person.  Officers who testifies offered no explanation as to why after receiving this information, they never bothered to ask their own informants to explain the discrepancies nor went back and investigated those leads.  Unfortunately, it seems this was a case where investigators were only interested in information that fit their predetermined narrative.”

District Attorney Eric Toney was directly involved in handling the ill-fated proffer interviews with the State’s informants, and ADA Amber Hahn conducted the jury trial for the State.  The District Attorney’s office has widely publicized the prosecution of the co-defendants and the amounts of methamphetamine involved in their cases.

Norton is happy to be free of this nightmare and able to move forward with his life.