Lawyer arrested in W.Va. disputes drug charges

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A Baltimore lawyer was arrested in West Virginia last week and charged with drug possession and intent to distribute after police allegedly found narcotics and paraphernalia in his car.

Noah Thomas Lowery-Clugston, 33, was arrested last Monday in Berkeley County after police pulled him over for speeding.

Lowery-Clugston, however, contends he was pulled over for no reason and that police used excessive force against him.

“The police weren’t listening to reason,” Lowery-Clugston said in a phone interview Friday. “They are a bunch of confused, backwards, redneck trolls.”

According to an online website for The Law Offices of Noah T. Lowery-Clugston, the Georgetown Law graduate passed the Maryland bar in February 2008 and established his own firm in 2010. The Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland has no record of discipline against him.

Lowery-Clugston was taken to Eastern Regional Jail in Martinsburg and charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver a controlled deadly substance and carrying a concealed weapon without a license. He has been released on bail.

Police allegedly found a cigar box containing narcotic mushrooms in his car, as well as crack cocaine, marijuana, pills used to treat ADHD, and the psychedelic drug DMT, The Journal newspaper in Martinsburg, W.Va. reported.

On Friday, Lowery-Clugston said police seemed very interested in the contents of his car, which he said was cluttered with comic books, art and smoking materials.

“In any case, we had a full car of goodies and the police wanted to get a look at them,” Lowery-Clugston said.

He said police pulled him out of the car and threw him on the pavement behind the vehicle, giving him bruises all over his body.

The published report in The Journal said Lowery-Clugston and a passenger were pulled over for speeding about 1 p.m. Monday by officers from the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office, who cited him for failing to provide proof of registration and for having a piece of material hanging from the car’s undercarriage. The Journal said a fight ensued that led to Lowery-Clugston’s arrest and a search of the vehicle.

“There was a small amount of marijuana in the car,” Lowery-Clugston said. “I’m not commenting on who put it there and who it belongs to. I’m going to say it wasn’t mine.”

According to the Journal, police said the search also yielded a cigar box filled with narcotic mushrooms and a plastic bag with eight pills—four labeled “alza 54” and four labeled “alza 18,” which are used to treat ADD and ADHD. Police also found a foil packet containing a yellow powder of DMT and a paper packet containing what police later identified as crack cocaine, The Journal reported.

Lowery-Clugston, however, said he has never even heard of these drugs and claims they were not in his car.

“I don’t even know what they are after,” he said. “They say I’m a crack dealer. I’ve never smoked crack cocaine. I’ve never seen people smoke crack cocaine.”

Lowery-Clugston said he was held in jail for 48 hours and plans to bring defamation and assault charges against the police unless they reach a settlement with him.

“This whole thing has been a real insult and effrontery for me,” Lowery-Clugston said.