A lawyer who lives in Butler County was arrested Friday after investigators alleged he repeatedly smuggled drugs into the Allegheny County Jail for inmates in 2018 and 2019, according to a recently released grand jury report.

In the report, it is alleged that Paul Gettleman, 74, of Portersville, smuggled synthetic marijuana-tainted paper into the jail to at least two inmates, one of whom was his client at the time, and would charge $500 an operation and once even charged $1,000.

The other was an inmate who allegedly sought out Gettleman after the lawyer gained a reputation as a drug smuggler.

Gettleman is charged with two felony counts of contraband of a controlled substance along with two ungraded charges of conspiracy and two ungraded charges of possession with the intent to deliver.

Citing a “dramatic increase” in the use of synthetic marijuana, also referred to as JWH and K2, Allegheny County Police detectives assigned to the jail began to investigate how drugs were being smuggled into the jail.

They determined that the drugs were being transported through the mail, jail employees and attorneys delivering drug-laced paperwork disguised as legal documents, according to the report, which was unsealed Thursday.

Detectives were tipped off to the alleged scheme on Aug. 28, 2018, after Gettleman appeared to be trying to evade the jail's security protocol by entering the facility through an exit door.

A corrections officer caught him and scanned him and a green folder he was carrying for contraband, but nothing was found.

Gettleman then went to meet his client, inmate Jermaine Dehonney, for less than two minutes, according to the report. Gettleman left the meeting and Dehonney kept the green envelope.

Officers noted 'odd' behavior

Noting this behavior as “odd,” corrections officers searched Dehonney's cellphone and the paper in the green envelope, a U.S. Supreme Court document, was tested for chemicals by the county's medical examiner.

They determined the page had synthetic cannabinoid in it, which is a Schedule 1 controlled substance, the highest abuse rating under the Drug Enforcement Administration's definition of drugs.

In a time when most paper correspondence is digitized to prevent drug smuggling, the report alleges that Gettleman abused the attorney-client privileges that exempts them from digitizing paper.

Charges were filed after the grand jury report recommended that the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office pursue charges against Gettleman. A spokesman for the Allegheny district attorney declined to comment on the matter. Gettleman could not be reached by phone, and apparently has an office in Pittsburgh.

'Complex conspiracy'

The report focuses on three inmates who would call their relatives on the outside and use “vague terms, speak in code and avoid using names.” The result is a “complex conspiracy between inmates, their family and friends and an attorney.” That attorney, they allege, was Gettleman.

The three inmates are Cheron Shelton, 32, of Lincoln-Lemington, Jermaine Dehonney, 24, of Turtle Creek, and Daquan Harrington, 23, of Duquesne.

The grand jury said under Dehonney's direction, his mother Tabitha Johnson, 43, of Penn Hills, received papers treated in the drug from an unidentified person known as “Curt.” A woman named Tatiana Bush coordinated the exchanges.

Conspiracy charges have been filed against Dehonney, Shelton and Johnson. Additionally, charges also were filed against Shelton's sister, Brittney Shelton, 28, of Pittsburgh and Harrington's girlfriend, Tyerra Taylor, 20, of West Mifflin. They all allegedly played a role in the drug smuggling efforts. No charges have been filed against Bush.

The original alleged plan was for Taylor to hand off five drug-laced pages to Harrington, her boyfriend, during his court appearance on Aug. 23, 2018, so that they could be smuggled undetected back into the jail.

But Harrington's court appearance was rescheduled and the two never had a chance to make the handoff.

That was when Gettleman allegedly got involved. Dehonney arranged for his lawyer to get the package of papers. The group arranged for Brittney Shelton's sister, Ashley Smith, to meet Gettleman outside the jail on Aug. 28 for the handoff, which is what led to the investigation.

The report also alleges Gettleman had a similar arrangement in the spring with another inmate, who is not named in the report.

The inmate would pay $150 per tainted page, according to the report. The inmate approached Gettleman after he heard from other inmates that Gettleman was a willing participant in the smuggling scheme, according to the report.

Report: Drugs smuggled multiple times

The inmate specifically told Gettleman that he wasn't interested in legal representation. The report doesn't specify how many times Gettleman allegedly smuggled drugs into the jail but it notes that it was done multiple times.

The inmate allegedly told the authors of the report that he would occasionally smoke the papers and would sell the rest to other inmates. The inmate observed varying-degrees of euphoria, according to the report.

The origins of the synthetic drug, the use of which has been linked to a rise in violent incidents at some state-run corrections facilities, date back nearly 40 years with an organic chemist at Clemson University.

The effects of smoking JWH chemicals are said to be similar to smoking marijuana, but have a significantly stronger effect on a person, according to studies.

Manufacturers will typically spray the chemical onto an organic material that can be burned and smoked. But in the case alleged by the grand jury, the chemical was sprayed on paper that would then be smoked.