By: Randy Travis
Aired: Jan 24 2018
DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. – The Fairburn man exposed by the FOX 5 I-Team for marketing marijuana-laced snacks to high school students will have a chance to get out of jail on bond.
Douglas County Superior Court judge Cynthia Adams set bond at $30,000 for Addae Simmons, charged with five felony drug counts in connection to an operation he ran called Trill Treats. Simmons set up a special Instagram page — with 4100 followers — where customers could find price lists and choose from a wide variety of marijuana-laced snacks. He even recorded video of himself preparing his illegal products.
Simmons’ operation first came to light following a FOX 5 I-Team hidden camera investigation. Parents of some his high school customers complained his treats got their children sick. One wound up in the hospital.
When an undercover producer met with Simmons, he admitted using high school students to sell his pot edibles to other students. We paid $100 for 12 brownies which later tested at THC levels three times higher than standards in pot-friendly states like Colorado. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana.
Simmons told our producer he uses high school students to sell his products and also targets colleges. “I have my sellers that do it,” he acknowledged. “But yeah, I make sure I be doing it.”
Douglasville police took possession of those edibles, then conducted two undercover buys of their own. They also executed a search warrant at Simmons’ house in Fairburn.
“Inside the defendant’s house where he lived with his mother and father they located over a dozen crockpots which were strewn throughout the garage and living room,” explained assistant district attorney David Emadi to the court. “In those crock pots were large amounts of marijuana.”
Emadi said comments on the Trill Treats instagram page made it clear.
“One of the school age high school children told him they were running out of the edibles to sell by second period and needed more,” he told judge Adams.
Authorities say they also recovered ledgers at Simmons house where he carefully detailed how fast his business was growing. It listed high schools he targeted: Pebblebrook, Langston Hughes, Westlake, Banneker, North Springs, Creekside, and Douglas County High School.
Prosecutors say the ledgers clearly showed Simmons was operating in the black, pocketing $5000 profit each month.
Simmons’ attorney Tawanna Morgan brought along at least 20 friends and family of the defendant to show the court the level of support. An official GoFundMe page for Simmons’ legal fees called him “a young man with dreams of starting his multi-faceted business empire, with the main focus of Creating Jobs and Opportunities for his friends.”
Simmons marked his 20th birthday inside the Douglas County jail. That’s where he’s been held without bond since his arrest December 5, 2017.
“See Addea for a young man,” she stressed. “Youthful indiscretion. He may have made a mistake, however that does not indicate that he is not a good candidate for bond.”
In addition to setting bond at $30,000, judge Adams ordered Simmons to stay away from Douglas County unless he had a court date and not to contact any witnesses in the case.
No charges have been filed against his parents.
FULL STORY: http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/i-team/prosecutor-trill-treats-founder-pocketed-5000month-off-pot-edible-sales-to-kids
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