BUYERS SHOW INTEREST IN CONFISCATED HOME

One widow's tragedy is another person's treasure, it seems. Police phones
rang Friday with prospective home-buyers expressing interest in a $20,000
Athens house drug officers confiscated Thursday from Fannie Gresham, an
82-year-old widow accused of allowing illegal drug sales there. Barring
court reversals, the state now owns ''Ma's House,'' a tiny home on Julius
Drive with a well-tended patch of collard greens in the backyard. Proceeds
from a sale will be shared by police and the Western Circuit District
Attorney, but Athens-Clarke Police Chief Jack Lumpkin said the rare step of
home forfeiture was not taken for money. A neighborhood watch group pushed
for the government seizure after Gresham, known to neighbors as ''Ma,''
turned a deaf ear to warnings from friends, neighbors and police, Lumpkin
said. Police predict more such seizures as they go after the drug trade in
some of Athens' troubled neighborhoods. ''Miss Gresham has been warned
numerous times,'' Lumpkin said Friday. ''The issue is for the neighbors to
have some peace of mind, and a crime and drug-free neighborhood, where
they're not threatened by drugs.'' Some 29 incidents of drug activity were
noted by police at her property since 1992, and authorities say drug
dealers were caught numerous times fetching drugs from the house for street
sales. Based on that, and police claims that the elder Gresham was helping
her son's alleged operation, visiting Superior Court Judge Stephen Boswell
issued a court order in December allowing the seizure. Gresham's son,
50-year-old Tommie Gresham, was arrested Thursday during the raid on a
charge of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Boswell gave
Fannie Gresham 14 days to move her belongings out of the small house, which
she and her husband, Tom, built in the 1950s. Tom Gresham died in June. A
hearing to delve into the facts of the case is scheduled for February in
Clarke Superior Court. Jim Smith, an attorney for both Greshams, said he
plans to appeal the forfeiture of Gresham's home to the Georgia Court of
Appeals, and he claims her son is innocent of Thursday's drug charge. The
elder Gresham was away during the seizure, and is now staying with
relatives. Smith described her as ''frail,'' and ''upset'' over the loss of
her home. ''They're taking property without any factual basis whatsoever,''
he said. ''That's all she owned.''