03-30-18 Brookhaven

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MARCH 30 - APRIL 12, 2018 • VOL. 10— NO. 7

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Brookhaven Reporter

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► Local police differ on responses to shoplifting calls PAGE 4 ► Assembling the worst superhero team ever Robin’s Nest PAGE 10 FARMERS MARKETS RETURN | P19

Apartments eyed for new high school, city official says

Former mayor honored at Cherry Blossom Festival

BY DYANA BAGBY dyanabagby@reporternewspapers.net

CITY OF BROOKHAVEN

Former Brookhaven mayor Rebecca Chase Williams was honored for her contributions in the founding of the city and the creation of the city’s Cherry Blossom Festival with the surprise announcement the city has renamed Wise Way in Blackburn Park to Rebecca Williams Way. From left are Councilmembers Joe Gebbia and Linley Jones, Mayor John Ernst, Williams and Councilmember John Park. Read story page 22.►

Coping with a Crisis: Opioid addiction in the suburbs EXCLUSIVE SERIES

How a suburban mother started peddling fentanyl and became the target of federal prosecutors BY MAX BLAU

H

e knocked at the door with $1,400 in his pocket. Cathine Sellers welcomed her ex into the quiet of her red brick townhouse on Roswell’s Weatherburne Drive. He’d been there for drugs before. Now he was back to buy some more. The 38-year-old mother with hazel eyes offered up a selection of drugs, including counterfeit oxycodone pills full of the synthetic opioid known as fentanyl. “Customers have returned the pills because they’re too strong,” Sellers told the

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man, according to federal court filings. “Try taking a quarter instead.” He bought about 100. Sellers later learned her ex was working as a confidential source for the Drug Enforcement Administration and had informed for the Sandy Springs Police Department since 2016. On June 13, 2017, DEA special agents arrested Sellers at a gas station off Ga. 400 and raided her townhouse. There, they found another 100 fentanyl pills inside a dietary supplement vial and a loaded Glock 30 in a laundry hamper. Think of a drug dealer in Atlanta; the tra-

ditional picture that probably comes to mind is someone selling heroin on the streets of English Avenue. But who deals drugs — and how they deal drugs — has expanded to include doctors running pill mills and suburban mothers like Sellers. From police to prosecutors, authorities are not only grappling with this new breed of opioid sellers — but new kinds of opioids, too. Federal authorities charged Sellers with possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl, a narcotic so potent it can kill someone exposed to a dose the size of a few grains See HOW on page 8

A new Cross Keys High School could be coming to Buford Highway in Brookhaven, a city official says, but DeKalb School officials are being tight-lipped about the possibility. Brookhaven Councilmember Joe Gebbia confirmed rumors that the DeKalb County School District is looking at property in Brookhaven and along Buford Highway to build a new Cross Keys High School. “That’s a possibility, and they have the right of eminent domain,” Gebbia said. While he said he does not know of any specific properties being looked at, he said Superintendent Stephen Green has said the district is looking at land adjacent to the current Cross Keys High School, located at 1626 North Druid Hills Road. Much of the property adjacent to the high school is where apartment complexSee APARTMENTS on page 13

Judge rules against city in eminent domain case BY DYANA BAGBY dyanabagby@reporternewspapers.net

The city’s attempt to take 19 acres of land for the Peachtree Creek Greenway was an illegal “bad faith” deal, a DeKalb County judge has ruled. The ruling wipes out the land-taking and requires the city to pay attorney’s fees but allows a new eminent domain attempt. The city wants the land on Briarwood Road to create a trailhead for the new park and trail system. DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Clarence Seeliger ruled Feb. 27 to grant See JUDGE on page 15


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