PENNSYLVANIA RECORD

A Montgomery County attorney who had represented a physician at trial

last month on prescription drug charges is now facing his own charges alleging he illegally sold prescription pain pills to an undercover Philadelphia police officer.

Gregory Noonan, of Lansdale, Pa., was nabbed for selling more than 300, 30-milligram Oxycodone pills on two separate occasions this month and last, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

The defendant, an attorney licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania with an office in Norristown, Pa., sold the plainclothes Philly cop 179 Oxycodone pills on Nov. 23 at about 7 in the evening with the agreement that Noonan would be paid $15 per pill, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Then, on Dec. 19 at about 6:15 p.m., the Noonan and the undercover officer met in the lawyer’s vehicle outside of his law office, where the officer gave Noonan $3,250 in cash in exchange for 180 Oxycodone pills.

Montgomery County detectives arrested Noonan after the second transaction.

County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, in a statement, thanked Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and his department’s Intensive Drug Unit for their assistance on the case.

“Cooperation between law enforcement agencies is important in criminal investigations especially where a drug dealer, because of his or her position, might be familiar with local undercover detectives,” Ferman stated.

The prosecutor spoke about the rising number of cases of opiate abuse in her county and the need to “stop this dangerous trend.

“One of my priorities is to investigate and prosecute prescription pill traffickers,” Ferman said in her statement. “As you can see from this arrest of a Lawyer and our recent successful prosecution of a Doctor, no one is above the law, no matter what occupation they hold.”

Noonan had represented a Franconia, Pa. doctor at trial last month on charges the physician prescribed pain pills to drug addicts, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The supposed “pill mill” was run out of the doctor’s Montgomery County medical office.

The doctor, Richard R. Ruth, was found guilty on Nov. 22, the day before Noonan allegedly made his first illegal drug sale to the undercover officer.

Noonan was arraigned Dec. 20 before Magisterial District Judge Margaret Hunsicker on various drug charges, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

The defendant was remanded to the county correctional facility after failing to post $250,000 bail.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for early January.