Houston Lawyer Charged With Smuggling Drugs Into Jail On Ecstasy-Saturated Legal Papers

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

A Houston attorney, Ronald Lewis, 77, is facing criminal charges over an allegation that he brought drug-laced papers into a jail that later caused the death of two inmates.

We have previously discussed charges of attorneys for criminal conduct in jails, but few have reached this level of culpability.

Lewis is currently facing two charges of having a banned substance in a correctional facility.

However, it is possible, if not likely, that additional charges will be brought later.

Drugs are often smuggled into prison on papers.

In the classic case, a page or a word in a book is saturated in a drug like LSD or Ecstasy and the inmates told about the spot. It is then digested or sold in the prison.

Lewis, a retired lawyer, is accused of saturating whole pages (marked as legal papers) with ecstasy and synthetic marijuana.

The material was brought into the Houston County Jail.

According to police, the sheets could sell for between $200 and $500 a sheet.

Lewis was shown to have visited 14 inmates between July 2023 until November 2023.

Police recovered approximately 154 sheets of paper believed to be laced with narcotics. Police are now testing 11 sheets of paper found in his possession.

Even assuming that the 154 sheets were the only drug-saturated pages introduced into the jail (as opposed to the unused sheets), that could fetch as much as $77,000 on the prison black market.

Lewis posted a $7,500 bond after his arrest.

If the sheets in his possession test positive, it is hard to see a defense absent coercion.  Even that defense breaks down due to the ability to seek police protection.

If convicted, the sentence is likely to be harsh despite his age. 

As an officer of the court and member of the bar, Lewis could face significant enhancement of the sentence.