Ex-cop gets jail for possession of narcotic drugs

Waukesha – An ex-Butler police officer was sentenced Monday to three months in jail for taking narcotic drugs from a Butler residence due to his addiction to Oxycodone.

Phillip J. Grabski, 36, of N26 W27517 Wildflower Road, City of Pewaukee, was also ordered by Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge William J. Domina to three years of probation. In March Grabski entered a guilty plea to one count of possession of narcotic drugs.

Grabski took Oxycodone pills from a residence on N. 127th St. in October 2009 while he was on duty.
“It (being a police officer) gave you an advantage. It put you in a position of power to gain entry. They trusted you,” Domina said.

Grabski had been at the residence several times and a 68-year-old woman who lives at the residence informed a Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department detective that on Oct. 8 she noticed some pills were missing. The woman told the detective she keeps the pills in the kitchen and Grabski was alone in the kitchen that day, according to the criminal complaint.

Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel said this was a difficult situation as Grabski was a decorated officer and he became addicted to the painkillers after he was injured while on duty.

“He knew the danger of it but it was so over powerful it overcame him,” Grabski said.

However, as a law enforcement officer, Grabski violated the trust that comes with the position.

Grabski had befriended the woman and went to her house with the ulterior motive of stealing the pills, Schimel said.

Paul Bucher, Grabski’s attorney, said Grabski knew he violated that trust. “He knew it was wrong,” Bucher said.

Grabski apologized for his actions and said what he did “embarrassed and shamed” him. “What I did was unacceptable,” he said.

Grabski has resigned from the Butler Police Department, with which he had worked since 1996.