Atkinson sentenced in Olney drug house cases

An Olney woman who allegedly dealt drugs out of a house on Avenue F was sentenced to six years in state prison on Dec. 20 on convictions for cocaine possession, illegally possessing a firearm, and violating the terms of her probation on previous drug charges, the district attorney said.

Adriene Yvonne Atkinson, 57, was on deferred adjudication probation on drug charges when Olney police arrested her on three separate occasions in October and November for possessing and distributing illegal drugs at 305 S. Ave. F and having a firearm in violation of her status as a felon and probationer, police said.

She pleaded “true” to grand jury indictments for possession of less than one gram of cocaine, as well as to prosecutors’ motion to revoke her community supervision on the firearms charge, the district attorney said.

She was sentenced to 15 months in state prison on the firearms charge and six years in the Texas Department of Corrections on the drug possession charges, the district attorney said. The sentences run concurrently, and Mr. Atkinson may be eligible for parole as early as 18 months into her Texas Department of Corrections sentence, due to quirks in the calculations for good behavior and other credits, he said.

“Both sentences are going to run concurrently and it is my that hope that she is incarcerated for a good length of time on the overall sentences,” Assistant District Attorney Phillip Gregory said. “She will do her state jail time for 15 months, where there is no parole, and she will be transferred to the [Texas Department of Corrections] to do the sentence for the [gun charge].”

Ms. Atkinson’s rental house at 305 S. Ave. F had been the focus of police drug interdiction efforts, and she was warned that if she kept up that activity she would be arrested, Police Chief Dan Birbeck said. OPD just shut down two locations that were trafficking narcotics in Olney, with the result that those involved were leaving town, he said. The department also is seeing a reduction in calls from nuisance apartment buildings as a result of a collaboration between police and the buildings’ managers, he said. “We just have to keep the pressure up and keep going,” he said.

Although Ms. Atkinson was arrested on counts of possession and manufacturing of drugs other than cocaine, those cases were closed out as part of her plea bargain, Mr. Gregory said. “They don’t affect anything for purposes of [sentencing] enhancements,” he said.

Ms. Atkinson faced two to 10 years in prison as a result of her guilty plea, he said.