PENNLIVE | BY COLIN DEPPEN | 06.23.16
COUDERSPORT — Mayor Shane Nickerson glanced around the courtroom, with its sea of aging, wooden pews, and began:
“My name is Shane and I’m an addict and alcoholic. I’ve been sober for 25 years.”
“Hi, Shane,” the roomful of drug court defendants and law enforcement officials called back.
For the next 30 minutes, all listened as Nickerson recounted his journey from teenage addict to mayor in charge of the same police force that once hassled him as a youth with a penchant for death metal, delinquency and drugs.