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TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow and
Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that Pennsylvania dentist Thomas
W. McFarland Jr. pleaded guilty today to
dumping the needles and other medical-type
waste that washed up in Avalon during the
last week of August 2008, causing the borough
to close its beaches five times.
According
to Director Taylor, McFarland, 61, of Wynnewood,
Pa., pleaded guilty to fourth-degree unlawful
discharge of water pollutants before Superior
Court Judge Raymond A. Batten in Cape May
County. McFarland pleaded guilty to an amended
count of a state grand jury indictment obtained
by the Division of Criminal Justice on Nov.
18, 2008.
Under
the plea agreement, the state will recommend
that McFarland be sentenced to a one-year
term of probation. As a condition of probation,
McFarland must pay $100,000 to the Borough
of Avalon as restitution for the expenses
it incurred at the time of the wash up,
with any remaining funds to go toward environmental
projects in Avalon.
Supervising
Deputy Attorney General Ed Bonanno prosecuted
the case and took the guilty plea for the
Environmental Crimes Section of the Division
of Criminal Justice Major Crimes Bureau.
Judge Batten scheduled sentencing for McFarland
for April 30.
McFarland,
who owns a house in the Avalon Manor section
of Middle Township, admitted that he took
his small motor boat into Townsend Inlet
at the north end of Avalon on Aug. 22, 2008
and dumped a bag of waste from his dental
practice in Wynnewood, Pa.
Beginning
the next day, dental waste was found washed
up along a stretch of beach at the north
end of Avalon between 9th Street and 24th
Street. The waste included approximately
260 “Accuject” dental-type needles,
180 cotton swabs, a number of blue and white
plastic capsules used to hold dental filling
material, and other items. Officials in
Avalon alerted the state Department of Environmental
Protection, which notified the Division
of Criminal Justice.
The
Division of Criminal Justice Environmental
Crimes Section immediately commenced an
intensive investigation with the Avalon
Police Department and the Cape May County
Prosecutor’s Office.
Investigators
from those agencies, led by the DCJ Environmental
Crimes Section, worked quickly to trace
the source of the dental waste, and the
Attorney General’s Office offered
a $10,000 reward for information leading
to an arrest and conviction. Certain information
obtained in the first days of the investigation
pointed to McFarland’s practice.
Avalon
officials recovered a wrapped dental drill
bit bearing a lot number. Detectives from
the Environmental Crimes Section contacted
the manufacturer and learned McFarland’s
practice was one of a small number of practices
in the Mid-Atlantic States that bought drill
bits from the lot in question. Detectives
also determined that he received promotional
products from Accuject at a time when they
were distributing needles bearing the lot
numbers that washed up in Avalon.
On
Sept. 2, 2008, McFarland went to the Avalon
Police Department and admitted dumping the
dental waste. After searching his beach
house, Boston Whaler boat and SUV in New
Jersey, investigators obtained a search
warrant for his dental office in Pennsylvania
and executed it on Sept. 4. They discovered
evidence corroborating McFarland’s
statement that the waste came from his practice,
including drill bits and Accuject needles
bearing the same lot numbers as those found
in Avalon. McFarland was charged by warrant
complaint at that time and released without
bail. The State of Pennsylvania subsequently
suspended his dental license.
Attorney
General Dow credited the following investigators:
From the Division of Criminal Justice Environmental
Crimes Section, the individuals who led
the investigation were Supervising Deputy
Attorney General Bonanno, Lt. Jeffrey Gross
and Detectives Steven Ogulin, Stephen Politowski
and Dawn Ryan. From the Avalon Police Department,
Chief David Dean, Detective Ben Geary and
the entire department. From the Cape May
County Prosecutor's Office, Chief James
Rybicki, Lt. Lynn Frame and Detective Matthew
Leusner. In Pennsylvania, from the Lower
Merion Township Police Department, Detective
Charles Craig and Officer Michael Stieber,
and the Montgomery County, Pa., District
Attorney's Office, Detective Mike Gilbert.
The
speed and effectiveness of the joint investigation
enabled officials to reassure the public
that the wash up of medical waste in Avalon
was an isolated incident, and that New Jersey’s
beaches are clean and safe. The Attorney
General’s Office emphasized that there
had not been a similar case of a person
being charged with dumping medical waste
directly into the ocean in 20 years.
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