MARCH 30 - APRIL 12, 2018 • VOL. 12— NO. 7
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Sandy Springs 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
North end task force begins; mixed-income advocates get key role
On the hunt
BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
Nathaniel Pham, 3, and mom Amy gather a trove of prizes during the annual Easter egg hunt at Hammond Park March 24. The popular springtime event is sponsored by the city and the North Perimeter Optimist Club.
PHIL MOSIER
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
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 task force that will study ways to spur redevelopment and propose affordable housing policy in Sandy Springs’ north end is now formally in place following a March 20 City Council vote. The chair of the new “North End Revitalization Task Force” is City Councilmember Steve Soteres. And the “co-chairs” are David Couchman and Melanie Noble-Couchman, the couple advocating a previously secret mixed-income housing proposal, recently revealed by the Reporter, that has strongly influenced north end and affordable housing policy behind the scenes. As in all previous public discussions about north end planning, Mayor Rusty Paul and councilmembers again said nothing at all about that concept during the task force vote, with the Couchmans described only as residents See NORTH on page 12
Security companies sue city over new false alarm ordinance BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
Security companies are suing the city of Sandy Springs over a new false-alarm ordinance, claiming it violates their constitutional rights by fining them for customers’ mistakes. The federal lawsuit was filed March 12 by the Georgia Electronic Life Safety & System Association (GELSSA) and two alarm compaSee SECURITY on page 22