Crime & Safety

Man Charged in Heroin Overdose of Sussex Woman Bound Over for Trial

The man allegedly sold the heroin that eventually killed her and is facing reckless homicide charges.

The Milwaukee man has been bound over for trial.

Donald Ray Brown, 46, was bound over for trial in Thursday after a two-day preliminary hearing where he attempted to have charges dismissed against him. He will be arraigned in the case Feb. 13.

Brown is facing 40 years in prison after he was charged with one count of first-degree reckless homicide for allegedly selling heroin to Patricia K. Berge, 22, who overdosed and died of the drug.

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According to the criminal complaint:

Waukesha County deputies were dispatched to Berge’s apartment in the West 23000 block of Clover Drive on June 3 around 7 a.m. after her mother, Kelly McFarlin, found her lifeless in her bedroom. Firefighters were attempting CPR when the deputies arrived, but Burge was pronounced dead at the scene.

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McFarlin said she knew her daughter used heroin in the past. She said talked to Burge at 11 p.m., the night before her death, but when she went to her daughter's bedroom the next morning, she was unable to awaken her and called 911.

Police found a syringe on the bedroom floor along with a prescription bottle filled with heroin, a tourniquet and other drug paraphernalia.


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