PENNSYLVANIA RECORD

A suburban Philadelphia attorney accused of selling an undercover cop

prescription drugs in a street-level deal has lost his license to practice law in the commonwealth.

Gregory Noonan, of Lansdale, Montgomery County, was disbarred on consent last month, court records show.

The disbarment follows Noonan’s arrest late last year for allegedly selling more than 300 Oxycodone pills to a police officer posing as an illegal drug buyer.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court accepted Noonan’s resignation from the bar in a Feb. 27 per curiam order.

Noonan, who records show had been a practicing attorney since 1987, was arrested shortly after he finished representing a physician at trial on the doctor’s own prescription drug charges.

The lawyer was accused of selling the prescription pain pills during two separate encounters in Norristown, Pa., which is where his law practice was located.

Montgomery County detectives arrested Noonan after the second transaction, which occurred in late December of last year.

Noonan had represented Franconia, Pa. physician Richard Ruth at trial this past November on charges that the doctor prescribed pain pills to drug addicts.

The first alleged drug deal between Noonan and the undercover police officer took place the day after the conclusion of Ruth’s trial, which ended with a guilty verdict.

A filing from the Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Board shows that Noonan “freely and voluntarily” resigned from the Pennsylvania bar in January.

While Noonan’s fall from grace could be traced to the prescription drug selling charges, disciplinary records show that the disbarment actually arose from professional misconduct that took place before he was hauled in on drug charges.

Court records show that Noonan had faced charges by the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of misrepresenting the status of a third party in a case arising from a workers’ compensation issue.