Stripper gets 17 years after leading doc down wrong path

Gone were the bright lights and glitz of Las Vegas. So were the spoils of a multimillion-dollar drug-running empire that stretched from Washington to North Dakota.

Instead, Loren M. Toelle, a 52-year-old former stripper, walked in to face the federal judge Tuesday wearing rumpled green-and-white-striped pants and a matching shirt that read: “Shoshone County Inmate.”

U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill spoke to Toelle just an hour after her ex-husband, Dr. Stanley Toelle, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors for misleading tax collectors about the couple’s income, and four hours after her brother, 48-year-old Robert Hill, received 12 1/2 years in federal prison for his role in the drug ring.

“Your case is truly an enigma, a puzzle to me” Winmill told Loren Toelle. “You seem very intelligent. You could have done so many other things in your life. Why you turned to this is not one I can figure out”/ Thomas Clouse , SR. More here.