Cover story in Saratoga TODAY newspaper's April 15, 2016 edition.

1. HEROIN
See Recusal pg. 10 See Gymnast pg. 44
Recusal Or Refusal?Mayor/Hospital Communication Submitted to Board of Ethics
State Champ
Introduction:
This is a story about transpar-
ency in government, overlaid on a
timeline.Thesupportingdocuments
that will be discussed have been
placed online –http://saratogato-
dayonline.com/index.php/news/
news/item/5245-saratoga-emails
-forthereader’sconsideration.
After discussing this with man-
agement, before press time, I con-
tacted Mayor Yepsen and invited
her to respond to this story, and we
pledged to print her response ver-
batim, in next week’s issue.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —
According to correspondence
(emails and letters) and docu-
ments obtained by Saratoga
TODAY, between officials at
Saratoga Hospital and Saratoga
Springs Mayor Joanne Yepsen,
Mayor Yepsen opened discus-
sions with the Hospital about
fundraising work for her pri-
vate company in October 2015,
after the Hospital’s Planned Unit
Development (PUD) amendment
See Heroin pg. 12
Volume 11 • Issue 15 • April 15 – April 21, 2016 saratogaTODAYnewspaper.com • (518) 581-2480
L O C A L • I N D E P E N D E N T • F R E E
by Arthur Gonick
Saratoga TODAY
by Norra Reyes
Saratoga TODAY
Weekend Forecast
FRIDAY
62|33
SATURDAY
65|37
SUNDAY
73|41
Inside TODAY
Blotter 5
Obituaries 6
Business 18-19
Education 22-23
Pulse 36-39
Sports 44-48
Kasich in
Saratoga
See pg. 11
Last Chance To Vote
See pgs. 26-28
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Another
young victim was lost last week to
thewarondrugs,a23-year-oldlocal
womanwhodiedofadrugoverdose
right here in Saratoga Springs.
For her, and many families like
hers, the drug war is more of a street
fight, one that lurks in every home
medicinecabinet,hauntseveryplay-
ground, and boldly grins through
every neighborhood here and across
America.
Retired New York State police
sergeant Fred Scheidt of Greenfield
says you never see it coming. He lost
his daughter, Katie-Lynn Scheidt,
October 3, 2014, and the grief has
never left him or the rest of Katie’s
family.
“But what makes me really
angry,” said Scheidt, “is that she was
four months clean when her dealer
got to her. Regular people don’t
understand the criminal element.
They think that criminals are just like
you and me. They aren’t.”
According to Scheidt, dealers
think nothing of handing out free
heroin samples to people who are in
recovery, because they know they’ll
be back for more, willing to pay, will-
ingtobeg,borrowandstealtopayfor
more.
“Katie would say she had to
change her phone number because
pushers were trying to encourage
her to get back into it,” said Scheidt.
“Subtly, people are dying. If you took
out a pin map and marked all the
spots, people would go, ‘are you kid-
ding me?’”
The combination of the often
painfulphysicaladdiction;easyaccess
to cheap opioids like heroin; and the
insidious,cloying“friendship”offered
bydealerswithnoconsciencesuggest
overdose deaths are more inevitable
than accidental. And murderous.
No Murder Charge For Dealing Death
“On average for the past three or
four months, we have been using
Narcan a couple times a week.”
- Saratoga Springs Deputy Fire Chief Peter Shaw