IN BRIEF
- Samotria Matthews, a senior administrator for the Milwaukee County Clerk of Circuit Court, is charged with maintaining a drug trafficking place as a party to a crime.
- Prosecutors allege the basement of Matthews’ Milwaukee home was used to package, store and manufacture cocaine and fentanyl for sale.
- Police reported finding fentanyl, cocaine, hydraulic presses, digital scales, cutting agents, cash and a firearm during the investigation.
Prosecutors say the basement of a home owned by Samotria Matthews, a Milwaukee County courts official, was used to package, store, manufacture and keep large amounts of cocaine and fentanyl for sale, rather than personal use.
Matthews is charged with maintaining a drug trafficking place with a modifier as a party to a crime, according to online court records and a criminal complaint released Aug. 15. She was arrested Aug. 13. Two family members face additional charges, including possession with intent to deliver, and charges stemming from two, high-speed police pursuits.
If convicted, Matthews would face a sentence of up to 3.5 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Matthews is a senior administrator for the Milwaukee County Clerk of Circuit Court, an office overseen by an elected official, Anna Maria Hodges. Matthews has been suspended, Hodges told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Aug. 14.
Matthews had an initial court appearance at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 16. Online court records do not yet list her lawyer.
According to the criminal complaint:
On Aug. 11, a Milwaukee police officer was working undercover and conducting surveillance at 4527 N. 46th St. for an ongoing narcotics investigation. The officer was actively investigating Terrion and Rodney Matthews.
While conducting surveillance around 3:10 p.m., the officer saw a red Volkswagen Atlas leave the driveway. The officer saw a Black female driving the car but could not identify her.
The car’s plates were registered to Matthews with 4527 N. 46th St. as the address, which had not changed since 2007.
About 15 minutes later, the officer saw Terrion Matthews exit the home and get into a black Acura sedan with an “excessive” window tint, according to prosecutors. The officer notified two other nearby officers, who activated the emergency lights and sirens of their marked squad car and attempted to stop the vehicle near the 5100 block of West Parkway Avenue. The vehicle sped up instead, and officers pursued it.
The pursuit lasted nearly four miles and reached speeds of 97 miles per hour. The Acura drove in wrong lane of traffic at several points and disregarded multiple stop signs, according to the complaint.
Heavy traffic on West Fond du Lac Avenue caused officers to lose sight of the vehicle. Officers later found the unoccupied car using a Wisconsin Department of Corrections GPS tracking device for Terrion Matthews, who was on active supervision. An officer searched the car, parked at 4560 N. 66th St., and found multiple sandwich bags.
Meanwhile, around 3:34 p.m., an officer saw Rodney Matthews leave the home, run to a black BMW sedan and leave the area at a high rate of speed.
Officers later used the tracking device to find a subject entering the same black BMW near West Ruby Avenue, close to where Terrion Matthew’s tracking device was pinging. Another pursuit began, with maximum speeds above 100 miles per hour, prosecutors say, and the driver of the fleeing vehicle “narrowly missed striking pedestrians crossing the street.”
The BMW driver hit a traffic signal on West Green Bay Avenue, disabling the car, and the driver was taken into custody and identified as Rodney Matthews. The passenger was Terrion Matthews, the driver in the first pursuit.
Prosecutors believe Rodney went to pick up Terrion Matthews after the pursuit to prevent Terrion from being taken into custody. Police found several iPhones and a digital scale in the car. Police checked records and found Rodney was on probation for a felony offense of fleeing/eluding an officer.
Police began searching the residence at 4527 N. 46th St. around 4:40 p.m. In a bedroom, officers found a semi-automatic handgun, a digital scale and about $2,000 in cash.
In the basement, police found hydraulic brick presses, clear plastic bags and cutting agents on a table. Another officer found a bag of brown powdery substance and what appeared to be about half a pound of cocaine. Officers then sought a search warrant, signed by Circuit Court Judge William Pocan, and the search resumed began around 8 p.m.
Officers also found the following in a backpack:
- An orange, powdery substance that tested positive for fentanyl, weighing 1,020 grams
- A small, light green, brick-shaped substance that tested positive for fentanyl, weighing 260 grams
- A large digital scale that later tested positive for cocaine
- Other substances that tested positive for cocaine and/or fentanyl, many packaged in sandwich bags, weighing a total of 598 grams or about 1.3 pounds
Police also found multiple blenders with tan residue that later tested positive for fentanyl and three hydraulic presses, commonly used to press powder narcotics into bricks.
Officers checked City of Milwaukee property tax records and found Samotria Bellamy, who also goes by Samotria Matthews, has owned the residence at 4527 N. 46th St. since 1999.
“Due to the presence of a firearm, multiple blenders, a large amount of U.S. currency, multiple hydraulic presses, cutting agents, multiple digital scales, a box of sandwich bags and the sheer quantity of narcotics recovered from the residence, it is consistent with Rodney Matthews, Terrion Matthews and Samotria Matthews utilizing the residence, specifically the basement to package, store, manufacture and keep narcotics for sale,” according to the criminal complaint.
“Complainant believes that the drugs were possessed for distribution and not personal use based on the presence of packaging material, multiple cell phones, multiple blenders, multiple kilo presses, cutting agents, a firearm, and the manner in which the controlled substances were packaged,” the complaint stated.
Rodney Matthews is also charged with possession with intent to deliver cocaine over 40 grams, and fentanyl over 50 grams, possession of a firearm by a felon, bail jumping, harboring or aiding a felon, operating a motor vehicle to flee an officer and first degree recklessly endangering safety.
Terrion Matthews faces similar drug charges, plus second degree recklessly endangering safety and operating a motor vehicle to flee an officer, both with a “habitual criminality repeater” modifier, which could increase his total sentence if found guilty.
Samotria Matthews had never previously been arrested in Wisconsin or convicted of a crime in the state, according to state Department of Justice records. The criminal complaint did not detail her relationship to either man but did say police believed she shared a bedroom with Rodney Matthews and noted all three received mail at the house.
