Dentist Admits to Dumping Needles Near Shore
Main Line dentist's attorney says dumping medical waste was a "cry for help"
By TERESA MASTERSON
Updated 1:16 PM EDT, Mon, Mar 15, 2010
A Main Line dentist pleaded guilty to dumping needles and other medical waste in the ocean, which washed up on the Jersey shore in the summer of 2008.
Thomas McFarland, 61, who owns a house in the Avalon Manor section of Middle Township, admitted to taking his small motorboat into the Townsend Inlet at the north end of Avalon on Aug. 22 and dumping a bag of medical waste from his dental practice in Wynnewood, Pa., according to the attorney general’s office.
The needles and other waste washed up in Avalon, causing the borough to close its beaches five times during the last week of August 2008.
McFarland said he dumped 260 hypodermic needles, 180 cotton swabs and numerous containers for dental filling material into an inlet just before Labor Day weekend in 2008.
His lawyer says the dentist was distraught to the point of mental illness over his wife's lung cancer, and appeared to be acting out in “a cry for help.”
Under the plea-agreement, the state will recommend a sentence of one year of probation and a $100,000 fine to be paid to the borough of Avalon.
McFarland was unsuccessful in getting a pre-trial intervention, which is an alternative to the traditional judicial process for first-time offenders.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Philadelphia
First Published: Mar 15, 2010 11:58 AM EDT
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