JUNE 4, 2015
Husband and wife, with two young children, taken into custody on multiple charges
For the second time within 36 hours, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office conducted another successful drug raid in Fort Gay. Sheriff’d deputies executed a search warrant at apartment 15 at the Ft. Gay Apartments in the 8500 block of Orchard Street in Fort Gay just before 12 P.M. Wednesday morning that led to a married couple facing not only serious drug charges from the bust, but also additional charges because they had their children in the reportedly narcotic strewn home that police said they were dealing heroin and pills right in front of them.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Wayne County Magistrate Court, the sheriff’s department stated they had received information that oxycodone pills was being kept, stored and sold from the apartment.
The occupants living at the apartment were identified as Allen Wayne Copley, 39, and his wife, Odessa Danielle Copley, 27.
In the second floor apartment, for which the front door is still in splinters, deputies found $500 in cash on Allen Copley, as well as a false battery with the reported oxycodone tablets inside. They also found a false Redbull can on the kitchen counter with 20 individual packs of heroin wrapped in aluminum foil. The drugs were all well within reach of the two children
According to the complaint report, Allen admitted that an unknown man from Michigan left him the pills to sell. He also told deputies he helped that man sell pills the night before.
Both Allen Copley and Odessa Copley admitted that they personally used some of the pills and heroin the evening before.
The Copleys have two children, a 7-month-old infant and a five year old who were in the home at the time of the bust.
Allen and Odessa Copley are each charged with five felony criminal charges: two counts of possession with intent to deliver, a single count of felony conspiracy and two counts of child neglect creating risk of injury.
The Copley’s were both incarcerated at the Western Regional Jail.in Barboursville, where the pair’s bond was set each separately at $100,000.
Their two children where taken into the care of Child Protective Services
The building manager of the apartments told police officials that all the tenants of the low-income housing go through an NCIC background check and credit check before getting a place to try to curb this type of activity.
Residents living at the apartment at around that area of the Fort Gay community were outraged and demanding police clear out the drug abusers.
“I walked out to seeing the guys and the guns running up the stairs,” Rachael Gilkerson said.
Gilkerson watched from across the hall as Wayne County deputies forced their way inside.
Gilkerson was worried about the two children.
“My first thought was those kids.” “It breaks my heart because those kids don’t understand,” she said.
“I hope they learn a lesson and I hope the kids have a better future ahead of them,” Gilkerson said.
Another local resident, Jimmie Daniels stated: “No kid asks to be born into a drug family but they have to deal with that. They see it all the time so to them there’s nothing wrong with that,”
“There’s not a family in Fort Gay that’s not been affected by drugs,” Daniels said.
Wayne law enforcement officials said that while fixing the community drug problem is never easy, fixing the problems in Fort Gay is getting harder because suspected criminals are getting better at hiding the drugs.
The Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, Fort Gay Police Department and Wayne County Drug Enforcement assisted in the bust.
