{"id":209098,"date":"2026-08-19T20:29:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T01:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=209098"},"modified":"2026-08-19T20:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T01:29:08","slug":"willshire-woman-gets-long-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/08\/19\/willshire-woman-gets-long-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"Willshire woman gets long sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent staff<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WAPAKONETA &#8212; A Willshire woman has received a longer than expected prison sentence for her involvement with drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During a hearing held in Auglaize County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday, Nicole Cooper, 43,&nbsp; was sentenced to 10 years in prison plus five years of post-release control on one count of possession of drugs with specifications, a first degree felony. She is not eligible for judicial release, meaning she\u2019ll serve the full sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/FullsizeMugshotHandler.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-205296\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Nicole Cooper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Prosecutors sought a seven year sentence, while defense attorney Nick Catania wanted a five year sentence. Based on the results of a pre-sentence investigation, which included previous convictions for similar crimes and multiple OVIs, Judge Fredrick Pepple imposed a longer than expected sentence. It was noted that her most recent conviction occurred while she was on community control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cooper was arrested in late April after a traffic stop along Interstate 75 near Wapakoneta. According to a press release issued by the Auglaize County Sheriff\u2019s Office, a K-9 was requested to conduct a sniff of the vehicle and gave a positive indication. Deputies then searched the vehicle and found 1.5 pounds of suspected meth along with just over $800 in cash. She was incarcerated at the Auglaize County Jail since her arrest. In late May, she entered a guilty plea to one of two charges, with the second one being dismissed by prosecutors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The vehicle she was in, a GMC Envoy and the $800 were ordered forfeited and handed over to Auglaize County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent staff WAPAKONETA &#8212; A Willshire woman has received a longer than expected prison sentence for her involvement with drugs. During a hearing held in Auglaize County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday, Nicole Cooper, 43,&nbsp; was sentenced to 10 years in prison plus five years of post-release control on one count of possession of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-27 06:58:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209099,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209098\/revisions\/209099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}