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Recovered drill bit led to capture

Pennsylvania dentist Thomas W. McFarland Jr. pleaded guilty Monday to dumping the needles and other medical-type waste that washed up in Avalon during in August 2008, causing the borough to close its beaches five times.

McFarland, 61, of Wynnewood, Pa., pleaded guilty to fourth-degree unlawful discharge of water pollutants before state Superior Court Judge Raymond A. Batten in Cape May Courthouse, Attorney General Paula T. Dow announced.

McFarland pleaded guilty to an amended count of a state grand jury indictment obtained by the state Division of Criminal Justice on Nov. 18, 2008.

The state will recommend 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 the borough.

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.

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 dental 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's Environmental Crimes Section immediately commenced an intensive investigation with the Avalon police and the Cape May County prosecutor's office.

Investigators 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 the firm was distributing needles bearing the lot numbers that washed up in Avalon.

On Sept. 2, 2008, McFarland went to the Avalon police 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 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.

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 were safe. The Attorney General's office noted that there had not been a similar case of a person being charged with dumping medical waste directly into the ocean in 20 years.

Supervising Deputy Attorney General Ed Bonanno prosecuted the case and took the guilty plea for the division's Environmental Crimes Section.

— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSERYNEWSROOM.COM