Courts, Criminal law

“A Sense Of Remorse”: Michigan Judge Gives Husband Just 60 Days For Repeatedly Poisoning Wife’s Coffee

In one of the most bizarre sentencing decisions in recent memory, visiting Judge Anthony Viviano sentenced Brian Kozlowski, 46, to just 60 days for a crime warranting 180 months. Kozlowski’s ex-wife suspected he was poisoning her and caught him on camera spiking her coffee. She was lucky but nearly not as lucky as he was in getting this ridiculously low sentence for a 12-year felony. Vivano said that he gave him the low sentence because Kozlowski showed some remorse.

Kozlowski was in the middle of a divorce and started to slip diphenhydramine, the primary ingredient in antihistamines, into Therese Kozlowski’s coffee. She started to have blurred vision and felt nauseous. She suspected the coffee and set up a hidden camera. It caught Kozlowski in the act. He was shown on tape dissolving the diphenhydramine pills in a shot glass and then stirring the drug into the coffee pot.

Therese Kozlowski, makes $180,000 annually and killing her would have allowed her now ex-husband to collect $1 million in life insurance, retirement and savings accounts.

His wife claimed that Kozlowski slipped her Adderall, laxative, and then poison. The couple’s adult daughter also drank the tainted coffee and both claimed that they almost crashed driving home due to the sleeping aid.

Kozlowski pleaded no contest to a felony count of placing harmful objects in food. The minimum sentence for that offense is 19-39 months.

Nevertheless, this premeditated and prolonged effort to kill his wife resulted in a 60 day sentence because Vivano said that he detected “a sense of remorse” and said that “he does have an understanding of the seriousness of this matter.”

72 thoughts on ““A Sense Of Remorse”: Michigan Judge Gives Husband Just 60 Days For Repeatedly Poisoning Wife’s Coffee”

  1. Well, it’s a good thing that such would-be murderers don’t read classic crime fiction or televised versions from year long gone. We don’t want to give them any creative ideas in this realm, such as the following 28 minute Alfred Hitchcock episode “Malice Domestic” (1957), based on a story by British writer Philip MacDonald.

    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x54767e

  2. You are missing key features of this story:

    The poisoning began in July 2018, around the time his now ex-wife Therese began divorce proceedings. Over several weeks, Brian Kozlowski drugged her coffee by adding eight diphenhydramine pills to the brew. ……

    Diphenhydramine = Benadryl. He was an idiot for selected Benadryl to poison anyone. The usual dose is 25 mg pill every 4-8 hours, with a maximum 300 mg daily. He gave her 8 pills = 200 mgs which is well below the max dosage.

    The Benadryl really isn’t the problem in this story.

    Therese Kozlowski said this wasn’t the only time her ex had tried to poison her. She said he placed laxatives in her protein shake and Adderall in her vodka when the couple was spent time together on their boat….Court documents noted that Brian Kozlowski had also been secretly urinating in his now ex-wife’s shampoo and conditioner.

    Both the husband and wife have serious pathology of a mental nature.

    Adderall is a psychiatric drug. Adderall is prescribed for pediatrics and young adults for ADHD. The couple’s daughter is an adult. There is no good reason for an adult to use it other than psych reasons, and if so, it can not be automatically refilled. The adult must see the doctor, usually a psychiatric, every 30 days to get a new paper prescription. That this couple had Adderall in the house so casually as to be used in vodka tells me there was abuse of Adderall, a fairly common psych problem in America

    The Judge may have seen that this couple had mental illness, and possibly suggested or ordered some type of intervention on behalf of a social worker or court appointed counselor. I’m guessing but what you are missing is that both he and she are certifiable nuts.

    “To think that the man I fell in love with at 16 years old and have three beautiful children with would endanger my life was unbelievable,” she said.

    Definite pathology on her part too. But then that’s par for the course in America, like the Democrats pulling the “anit-gun” card at the death of innocent people in El Paso & Dayton. People kill people. If anything the destruction of the family unit, of sense of responsibility and self-regulation, of demanding a dictatorship of relative, these have brought our country to our knees.

    We are a very sick nation

    1. I’m sure it makes sense to you.

      I doubt either one of these people is nuts. It hardly matters in a legal proceeding, unless the M’Naghten rule can be invoked.

      1. Once again, self-regulation is key. Neither of these spouses exhibited self-regulation and both had poor judgement,

        We have come to expect other parties (e.g. government) to manage our world, our own personal affairs and be our moral guardian.

        As I have stated many times fitness is crucial for survival, natural selection. If people are not fit we should stop pretending we know better and hence not enable them.

    2. Placing a known sedative in someone’s coffee without their knowledge knowing they’re about to drive a car is more than “placing objects in food”. It’s arguably attempted murder, and the couple’s daughter testified that it very nearly ended in loss of control of a motor vehicle and two deaths.

      The choice of intoxicant testifies not to remorse, but choosing a sedative which is regarded by many people as innocuous. Had she died at the wheel, toxicology would have found an over-the-counter sleep aid and/or antihistamine at an only moderately high dosage. It’s just as plausible he chose to use this drug in order to get away with a murder.

  4. Meanwhile, deep systemic problems in the U.S., with two mass shootings in 24 hours, as many Americans continue to have their heads in the sand.

    Donald Trump tweets:

    “God bless the people of El Paso Texas. God bless the people of Dayton, Ohio.”

    What does Donald Trump know about ‘God’?

        1. I can speculate about Trump’s beliefs, Paul. But don’t speculate about me, that’s not fair!

            1. Confidentially, I really like double standards.
              (Confidentially and anonymously).

          2. Anonymous – if you can speculate about Trump, certainly we can speculate about you.

          1. No, Paul. You’re attempting to make it about me.

            I’m not the president.

            1. Anonymous – of course you are the President. Who else would make such silly posts.

    2. Obama had 24 mass shootings and what changed?
      Did you blame Obama for them?

      Neither party works for the people and Trump is just a symptom of that.

        1. “As of Sunday, which was the 216th day of the year, there have been 251 mass shootings in the U.S., according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, which tracks every mass shooting in the country. The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as any incident in which at least four people were shot, excluding the shooter.

          “The toll of 251 mass shootings include five high-profile rampages in the past eight days, in which more than 100 people were shot:”

          From the previous linked article.

        2. “Our problems most certainly predate Trump, but we haven’t seen any improvement:”

          What can the President do for a problem of the soul and of the community?

          Failure to take responsibility, alienation, social isolation, nihilism, jealousy, a sense of powerlessness, broken families, narcissism, peer rejection–what can the President do about a problem in the culture? Who is the culture?

    3. Anonymous………When Donald Trump took the oath of office for the presidency, he added “So help me God” which presidents are allowed, but not required, to do.
      It was important to him, apparently.

      1. With all the evidence available to determine his belief in God, that’s what you’re going with? If you ran through the Ten Commandments and compared them to his actions, that might be a better indicator.

        1. Enigma,
          That is an interesting observation.

          On the one hand, it could be considered rather unfair, since many people believe in God, yet fail at upholding the Ten Commandments in some way, as fallible humans are won’t to do. How many people break the 2nd Commandment, by essentially making materialism the god to follow?

          Many people perhaps consider belief in God akin to driving a car down the road. None of us keep the wheel perfectly straight, steering a little right, a little left to keep the car in the lane and moving ‘straight’ down the road.

          Yet, some say Jesus was the only true Christian. And Dr. Peterson asks who dares say ‘I believe’ since belief should include embodied belief, else ‘Faith without works is dead’.

          1. Of course, everyone sins and falls short of the glory of God. I wouldn’t hold Trump to a standard of perfection that none can achieve. More specific to my argument though, I can’t very well give him credit because some words he may have had little input into, were included in an oath he read.
            His word mean nothing, he is not repentant for his sins (lets use his adultery for example), no way he should be held up as an example.

    4. 550 black folks, descendants of freed slaves and various and sundry other foreign invader hyphenates killed in Chicago in 2018.

      Significantly more individual shooting murders in Chicago don’t make the MSMS news.

      Apparently only “mass” murder by “assault rifle” is of interest to the communists (i.e. MSM).

      40,000 vehicular deaths on highways and there is no “reporting” at all.

      According to the statistics, America should ban cars and then Chicago.

      Perhaps the MSM is not engaged in reporting but the forcible imposition of propaganda and indoctrination with the political goal of abolishing the 2nd Amendment no matter how long it takes…no matter how long it takes to import more and evermore parasitic democrat voters (now you know why the Greeks, Romans and American Founders severely limited and restricted the vote).

      “If you don’t love it, leave it…”

      To wit,

      “The Fightin’ Side Of Me”

      – Merle Haggard

      I hear people talkin’ bad,
      About the way they have to live here in this country
      Harpin’ on the wars we fight
      And gripin’ ’bout the way things oughta be
      And I don’t mind ’em switchin’ sides
      And standin’ up for things they believe in
      But when they’re runnin’ down our country, man
      They’re walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me

      You’re walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me
      Runnin’ down the way of life
      Our fightin’ men have fought and died to keep
      If you don’t love it, leave it
      Let this song that I’m singin’ be a warnin’
      When you’re runnin’ down our country, hoss
      You’re walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me

      I read about some squirrelly guy
      Who claims that he just don’t believe in fightin’
      And I wonder just how long
      The rest of us can count on bein’ free
      They love our milk and honey
      But they preach about some other way of livin’
      But when they’re runnin’ down our country, man
      They’re walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me

    6. “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.”

      (And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst).

      “Woman, where are those thine accusers?”

      “No man, Lord.”

      “Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.”

      – John 8

  5. And Princess James Comey corruptly refused to prosecute Hillary Clinton whose guilt he spent 15 minutes delineating and proving.

    AG Barr elucidated, “spying.”

    Obongo, can you say “unmasking?” 260 times in Obongo’s final days of his ineligible term.

    Oops!

    Oh yeah, we all forgot how Chief Justice Roberts “legislated from the bench” and tyrannically “amended” the Constitution to usurp the power of the legislative branch by illicitly commingling the definitions of the words “state” and “federal” regarding Obongo’s unconstitutional “exchanges” in his unconstitutional Obongocare.

    The condition of America is hysterical, incoherent and chaotic anarchy as the inmates have taken over the asylum. The restricted vote republic of the American Founders must be re-implemented.

    It is long past time for mass impeachment, conviction and penalization of the entire “judicial branch.”

    Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    America has no judicial branch.

    America has two legislative branches.

  6. From the article supplied by JT:

    “Court documents noted that Brian Kozlowski had also been secretly urinating in his now ex-wife’s shampoo and conditioner.”

      1. you look at this and wonder about a bribe. seriously, i do
        it’s happened before and it will happen again

  7. I think it is reasonable since he tried to cut the poison with Adderall.

  8. That’s what he got for attempted murder? If they nearly crashed, he almost got away with it. Was this a plea deal or did the DA just charge him with putting harmful objects in food?

    1. Husbands and wives around the country just got the message that there is not much legal downside to trying to kill their spouses. Just be sure to show remorse.

      Atrocious.

    2. It’s a reasonable wager the DA didn’t think they could prove attempted murder without a mess of shoe-leather costs. Or it may be that every aspect of the administration of justice around Detroit is run by slobs. (Remember Vincent Chin?).

      1. “Ronald Ebens, the man who killed Vincent Chin, apologizes 30 years later”

        https://www.aaldef.org/blog/ronald-ebens-the-man-who-killed-vincent-chin-apologizes-30-years-later/

        Excerpt:

        His life hasn’t been easy the last 30 years. But at least, he’s alive. He watches a lot of TV, he said, like “America’s Got Talent.”

        “They’ve got good judges,” he said.

        Sort of like the judges he got in his case? Like Judge Charles Kaufman, the Michigan judge who sentenced him to probation without notifying Chin’s attorneys, virtually assuring Ebens would never serve time for the murder?

        Ebens didn’t want to comment on that.

  9. So the judge had to retire because of his advanced age, but he’s still able to be a “visiting judge.” It might be time to rethink the rules that apply to visiting judges.

    There’s probably more to the story. What do we know about the hinky husband? No one is his or her right mind would give this guy ’60 days’… What do you wanna be the not-so-good husband poisons someone else down the road?

    2. Correction:

      What do you wanna bet the not-so-good husband poisons someone else down the road?

  10. I agree that it should have been an attempted murder charge. The U.S. in general is way too lenient when it comes to these very dangerous people.

  11. Pingback: A Sense Of Remorse”: Michigan Judge Gives Husband Just 60 Days For Repeatedly Poisoning Wife’s Coffee | Jim Campbell's

  12. Everyone here seems intent on finding a political meme in this action.

    Maybe there is one. But fundimentally this is about the absence of the rule of law.

    The law – whatever it may be is not sacred with biblical authority. It is the work of men – or elected representatives, hopefully attempting to enact the will of the people.

    It is going to be imperfect, which is why we make changes to it over time.

    but the actual rule of law requires that the police enforce the law – as written, that prosecutors prosecute the law – as written, and that judges rule on the law – as written.

    When it is wrong we can change what is written.

    We can not fix it when police, prosecutors, and judges do as they please.

    If our political enemies – whether they are Trump or Clinton or … act in violation of the law AS WRITTEN – without creative interpretation, they should be prosecuted and convicted as the law requires.

    If you feel that following the law as written produces an outcome that you are unhappy with – work to change the law.

    1. Another guy like Mueller who doesn’t know when it’s time to do some other things with your life.

      That strikes me as the likely explanation for this.

    2. TIA: “I bet he put in a lot of time carrying petitions for the Macomb County Democratic Committee.”

      All seven of the judges children attended Hillsdale College and TIA would “bet” he’s a Dem?

  14. You’re not going to identify some of the problems here, because the case in question illustrates a systemic flaw in the legal system (of which there are a number), as well as the excessive discretion accorded the bar generally in this society.

    We have mandatory minima in state penal codes for a reason: the judiciary cannot be trusted with discretion over punishment. Too many of them at one time were social workers manque who simply did not believe in punishment. Add to that demoralized what-the-hell-we-did-this-last-week types among public prosecutors, and you had a toxic brew.

    Another problem has been a disinclination to bring cases to trial because procedures have grown so rococo and evidentiary rules so esoteric. You have appellate judges to blame for that, but trial judges contribute to that. (See the Jodi Arias case in Arizona, where the state courts took five years to process an open-and-shut murder case).

    We employ judges due to their expertise in matters of law. Doesn’t mean their comparative moral judgements are any better than a random individuals. All criminal sentences should be set according to formulae specified in the penal code. In certain cases (e.g. drug charges, assault, theft, and fraud), arguments for the formulae could be determined by a judge and assessors at a sentencing hearing, with the assessors drawn by lot from professional guilds outside the bar (e.g. pharmacists and occupational therapists). In others, they could be supplied by a state sentencing commission which produces and maintains a manual which specifies points to be assigned for previous convictions within and without the state’s courts. Offenders under 25 could be offered a standard set of formulaic dispensations which convert time incarcerated to time on probation. There would be an additional set of standard dispensations for those who offer a straightforward guilty plea; for those who enter a negotiated plea, the dispensation would have to be acceptable to judge and prosecutor alike

    Ideally, penal institutions would never mix convicts who have violent histories with those who do not or mix convicts from different age ranges and have special provisions for endangered convicts, schizophrenic convicts, mob bosses &c.

    Ideally as well, community service would disappear, conditional and unconditional discharge would disappear, corporal punishment would return, restitution would be bog standard for property crimes, the use of probation would be limited to youthful offenders and would never fully replace a sentence of incarceration; fines would be assessed on corporate defendants, would be assessed for offenses delineated outside the penal code, would be assessed as a supplementary penalty for petty misdemeanors, or would be assessed for submisdemeanor violations if various dispensations had radically vitiated the length of time incarcerated.

    As for this particular case, it may have been that proving attempted murder was a challenge. New York’s penal code is regrettably vague and lax in regard to defining and punishing assault, and that may be the case here.

    1. ABSURD

      You STILL believe that people should be imprisoned for drugs, but not alcohol? How do you rationalize that?

      1. Because alcohol is savored, LSD is not. Alcohol is a component of celebrating and socializing. People who consume liquor are seldom intoxicated. With street drugs, intoxication is the whole point. This isn’t that difficult.

        1. “Because alcohol is savored,…People who consume liquor are seldom intoxicated.” TIA says.

          This one — TIA x XI — is a bit out of touch, I’d say.

          https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/commonly-abused-drugs-charts

          “With street drugs, intoxication is the whole point. This isn’t that difficult.” Again: TIA says.

          TIA might want to stick to topics about which she or he is actually knowledgeable.

          “It’s a reasonable wager” that TIA hasn’t tried any “street drugs” — like MJ, for instance.

        2. TIA

          Alcohol is savored in the same sense that drugs are. The difference is that more people are harmed by drinkers and tobacco smokers than by those who use recreational drugs.

          This major fact isn’t difficult to grasp by people with the ability to read the news.

  15. Is that judge the same one in the cases of Trump’s friend Epstein and the woman (women?) who claim Trump assaulted them? Probably a leftist. “Lock HIM up with HRC.”

    1. Well, we can guess you’re using, in addition to the ineffective psychotropics you’re taking.

    2. Let me correct you on that one …Clinton’s friend Epstein. I understand in your feeble mind that if Trump walked by someone on the street 20 years ago and that individual went on to commit a horrible crime now it would be “Trumps” fault. So pathetic.

      1. anonymouse

        Tramp AND Clintoon’s friend Epstein. That’s why it’s his fault.

  16. The claimed reason for adulterating the coffee was so she wouldn’t “run around all night.’” Inconsistent with adding the drug to her morning coffee. Consistent with causing impairment while commuting. More related to causing her demise than stopping infidelity. He should have gotten a more harsh punishment.

  17. He was only trying to kill a woman! Who cares, right? Judges like this one have become an unfortunate comment on safety of women and children. He should be removed from the bench.

    1. Neither women nor children are disproportionately endangered by the perpetrators of violent crime.

        1. My suggestion, Diane, is that you give your own opinion and not lie about my opinion.

    2. Maybe the prosecutor should have charged him with attempted murder rather than putting harmful objects in food.

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