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Joe Biden’s remarks on China
draw condemnation.
INSIDE, 4A
Honestly Local
Study considered to assess Hall courthouse needs
BY BRIAN WELLMEIER
bwellmeier@gainesvilletimes.com
Hall County officials are in the
exploratory stages for the future
design and “construction of a
new courthouse” or expansion of
its current facility, according to
county documents.
“This is a needs assessment to
determine what our space needs
are for (the county’s) judicial sys
tem,” County Administrator Zach
Propes said.
Potential costs for a “judicial
complex space study” were exam
ined by county officials for several
minutes at Monday’s work session,
with Court Administrator Jason
Stephenson recommending the
consultant services of CGL Compa
nies LLC to conduct the study for
$436,440.
Stephenson could not be reached
for a scheduled interview, which
was abruptly canceled by Hall
County officials “out of respect for
commissioners” before a decision
is potentially made at a regular
meeting Wednesday evening.
Commissioners seemed hesitant
to move forward with CGL Mon
day, suggesting costs for services
of the Miami-based consulting
firm may be too high compared to
a $238,430 bid submitted by CPS -
a construction management com
pany headquartered in Atlanta.
“Qualifications look fairly simi
lar,” Commissioner Jeff Stowe
said during the meeting. “CPS has
done Cobb County’s courthouse ...
is there something on paper that
■ Please see COURT, 3A
FATAL FENTANYL, PART 2
Hall man
‘It devastated my world’
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Angie Ogletree lost her son Malcolm in 2022 to a fentanyl overdose.
Friend, mother of man killed in overdose discuss addiction
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
At the end of his active
addiction, Tyler Payne had a
$200-a-day habit of heroin and
fentanyl.
Payne, of Gainesville, said
he felt like he needed to use to
not feel sick.
“It was to the point where if
I didn’t have it, I literally felt
like I was dying,” he said.
He had tried detox centers,
methadone and suboxone, but
nothing worked.
After those attempts, he
tried Hall County’s mental
health court program, known
as the Health Empowerment
Linkage and Possibilities
Court. He started taking a
monthly shot of Vivitrol.
Now, he has been clean
from opioids for almost two
years.
But Payne has pondered the
friends of his that didn’t make
it like Malcolm Ogletree. Ogle-
tree, 34, of Gainesville, died
after a fentanyl overdose in
February 2022.
Ogletree’s family said the
Gainesville man had been
sober for 16 months before
overdosing on drugs given
to him by a friend. Joshua
Evans, 33, of Dahlonega, was
originally charged with felony
murder but was ultimately
sentenced to 10 years in prison
for involuntary manslaughter.
“A lot of people think it’s a
choice,” Ogletree’s mother,
Angie Hammond Ogletree,
told The Times. “And yeah,
it might be a choice the first
time. But once the drug has
control of you, it’s no longer a
choice. It has you.”
When a person
overdoses
In the emergency room,
Dr. Kartik Shah said there is
the classic trifecta of symp
toms indicating an overdose.
The pupils are smaller than
normal. The person is not
as responsive mentally. And
their breathing rate is down.
“Fentanyl overdoses have
been present for the last two
to three years,” said Shah,
an emergency medicine
physician at Northeast Geor
gia Health System. “It’s just
they’ve gotten worse.”
Since 2018, opioid over
doses coming to NGHS have
continually increased before
leveling off last year. In 2018,
there were 103 opioid over
doses at Northeast Georgia
Medical Center in Gainesville.
That number reached 188
in 2021 before coming down
to 156 last year, according to
data provided by the health
system.
In March, Hall County
ranked fifth in the state of
Georgia for counties with 15
or more drug overdose emer
gency department visits for
the month when controlling
for county population, accord
ing to data from the Georgia
Department of Public Health.
Tyler Mark Payne
Hall similarly held the
fourth spot in December and
second in October for the
same metric.
There have been 76 opioid
overdoses at the Gainesville
hospital through May of this
year.
Two to three decades ago,
heroin was far more com
mon. Textbooks advised doc
tors to administer .04 mg of
naloxone, an opioid overdose
reversal agent.
But the drugs got stronger,
and Shah has seen the doses
to bring someone back go up
hundredfold.
“What we see in the emer
gency department is we’ll
need even higher doses,”
Shah said. “We might give 1
or 2 or 4 or sometimes even 10
■ Please see FENTANYL, 3A
gets charged
again with
molestation
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
A Flowery Branch man previously
arrested for sexually assaulting a girl dur
ing the summer of 2020 now faces charges
related to a second girl
under the age of 10, accord
ing to authorities.
James Kenneth Evans,
34, was charged with child
molestation, rape and sex
ual battery in April 2021. He
received the new charges
Monday, June 19, and is in
the Hall County Jail, with no
bond.
Hall County Sheriff’s Office spokesman
Derreck Booth said the first set of charges
all concern the same girl under the age of
16, whom Evans knew beforehand.
Booth said the alleged rape and child
molestation happened between May
24-June 5, 2020, at the girl’s home. Authori
ties said the sexual battery allegedly hap
pened sometime in 2017.
Evans now faces charges of “ongoing
sexual assaults” related to a girl under the
age of 10 that happened between January
2014 and December 2015, according to the
Sheriff’s Office.
He was charged with aggravated child
molestation, aggravated sodomy and rape
after the girl disclosed the allegations last
month.
Evans
Atlanta man found
in Lake Lanier
died by drowning
BY BEN ANDERSON
banderson@gainesvilletimes.com
The Hall County Sheriff’s Office has released
the cause of death in the case of an Atlanta man
who was found dead May 22 in Lake Lanier at
Sunrise Cove Marina.
Terry Daugherty, 57, drowned, the Sheriff’s
Office said.
Daugherty was last seen by a friend around 9
p.m. May 21 on the dock where he kept his boat.
The next morning, his neighbors called 911 and
reported him missing.
Divers used sonar to locate Daugherty’s body
later that evening after an all-day search. He
was found next to the dock where his boat was
moored.
It is not known how Daugherty drowned. The
Sheriff’s Office said toxicology results from
the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are still
pending.
Two injured in wreck that shut down part of Friendship Road
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@
gainesvilletimes.com
Two people were taken to
Northeast Georgia Medical
Center with injuries after a
wreck Tuesday, June 20, on
Friendship Road, shutting
down part of the road for
three hours, according to
authorities.
Hall County Sheriff’s
Office deputies responded
to a wreck around 4:20
p.m. Tuesday on Friend
ship Road near River Place
in Braselton in front of
NGMC-Braselton.
The Sheriff’s Office said
a Ford Transit Connect
cargo van, driven by Serguei
Skrabovski, 60, of Dacula,
was making a left turn from
River Place onto Friendship
Road.
Katherine Michelle Collin,
37, of Flowery Branch, was
driving a Nissan Pathfinder
east on Friendship Road
approaching River Place.
“Investigators believe Ms.
Collin failed to stop at the red
traffic signal at the intersec
tion and struck the cargo van
on the front passenger side,”
according to the Sheriff’s
Office.
Collin’s SUV overturned
on one side after the wreck.
Both cars were damaged and
towed away from the scene.
The wreck closed the
eastbound lanes of Friend
ship Road for roughly three
hours.
Both drivers sustained
injuries believed to not be
life threatening and were
taken to Northeast Georgia
Medical Center in Gaines
ville, according to the Sher
iff’s Office.
The Sheriff’s Office did
not have information on the
status of their injuries, and it
was not immediately clear
why the drivers were taken
to the Gainesville hospital
over the Braselton facility.
