Suspected drug dealer ends up in the dog house

When police officers and Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office deputies swept through a Troy home looking for a suspected drug dealer last month they found her hiding in a dog kennel, disguised in a wig.

Kimberly Kusener, 39, now faces additional charges of felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs and misdemeanor criminal possession of drug paraphernalia in Lincoln County District Court. Authorities previously brought her up on charges of criminal possession of dangerous drugs with intent to distribute, a felony, and criminal possession of drug paraphernalia after her arrest in November.

Kusener was on the run from those charges when authorities learned she was hiding out at David Glenn Allyn’s house in Troy. District Judge Matthew Cuffe had issued a bench warrant for her arrest after she failed to appear in court in December.

According to court documents, Troy Police Chief Katie Davis got a tip about Kusener’s whereabouts on or around Jan. 13. She checked it out herself and spotted Kusener’s keys in Allyn’s driveway and her vehicle parked behind his house.

While Davis gathered information from tipsters, detectives with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office kept tabs on Allyn’s home. They noticed activity in a mobile home behind the house, according to an affidavit by Detective Dan Holskey.

By Jan. 20, through a combination of surveillance and informants, authorities concluded that Kusener likely was living with Allyn. Holskey described Allyn as “active in the use and distribution of dangerous drugs in the Troy … area” and wrote that Kusener in the past had stayed on his property.

Authorities secured a search warrant on Jan. 26. They had spotted Kusener’s van on the property and had good information that another “drug user and distributer” was bringing in illicit merchandise from Idaho, court documents said.

At about 1:15 p.m., a joint team of city police officers and sheriff’s deputies executed the warrant. They found one individual standing in front of the home and called for Allyn to exit the building as well.

Holskey wrote that fellow Detective Brandon Holzer showed Allyn a copy of the search warrant and the sheriff’s deputies went inside. There they allegedly found a flat black rock with two lines of a white crystal substance in the bedroom area. It presumptively tested positive for methamphetamine, court documents said.

They also found a plastic bag containing 15 grams of methamphetamine in an end table, two glass bubble pipes and multiple empty syringes, according to the affidavit. Holskey also came across multiple wigs allegedly owned by Kusener. Exiting through a back door, they found Kusener hiding in the kennel, donning a wig, Holskey wrote.

Going through her purse and makeup bag, detectives allegedly recovered load syringes that tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine. A bolt-action, 12-guage shotgun loaded with 16-guage shells was hanging in the bedroom and the detective wrote that Kusener was known to carry guns while transporting drugs.

Kusener was arrested on a warrant and taken to the Lincoln County Detention Center.

She allegedly later admitted she used the wigs to disguise herself while in the Troy area, Holskey wrote.

For his part, Allyn allegedly told deputies that he had just returned from an eye appointment and did not know that Kusener was at his home. When they informed him they had the house under surveillance and that Kusener had admitted to listening to music with him just before the search, Allyn said she was his niece, according to court documents. He allegedly told deputies he did not want to “rat her out.”

Allyn denied the methamphetamine in the house was his, according to Holskey’s affidavit, telling detectives that it belonged to Kusener.

The other individual found at the home said in an interview with law enforcement that she had gone along with Allyn for his eye appointment and denied knowing about Kusener or the alleged drugs.

Like Kusener, Allyn was brought up on a felony charge of criminal possession of dangerous drugs and misdemeanor charge of criminal possession of drug paraphernalia. Both pleaded not guilty in Lincoln County District Court on Feb. 22.

Kusener previously pleaded not guilty to the intent to distribute and drug paraphernalia charges on Feb. 8. Those charges stem from a traffic stop in November after law enforcement officials learned she had returned to Montana in violation of her probation.

During a subsequent search, Detective Brandon Holzer allegedly found 64 grams of methamphetamine on her.

Both Kusener and Allyn have omnibus hearings scheduled for May 3 with a pretrial conference to follow on June 7.