By Liz Zemba
Tribune-Review
GREENSBURG, Pa. — A former Fayette County attorney who avoided jail but surrendered his law license when he was caught delivering heroin to a client at the Uniontown booking center had to be revived from a suspected drug overdose in Monessen, police said.
City police said ambulance personnel used Narcan to revive Brian J. Salisbury, 36, of Brownsville in a Rite Aid parking lot at 1 a.m. Aug. 16.
Police said Salisbury had in his possession five empty stamp bags of heroin marked “Made in Colombia,” a black sock containing two hypodermic needles, a spoon with residue on it and a lighter.
Salisbury is charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. Neither he nor the attorney who handled his 2013 booking center case, Jeremy Davis of Uniontown, returned phone calls seeking comment.
An attorney is not listed on court paperwork for the paraphernalia charges in Monessen.
A 2014 plea bargain called for Salisbury to serve 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail for giving a client heroin, Xanax and Suboxone during a July 25, 2013, visit at the booking center in the Uniontown police station.
Salisbury avoided jail when Senior Judge Gerald R. Solomon granted him immediate parole in May 2014 on charges of drug possession and possession with intent to deliver. Solomon placed Salisbury on parole instead of sending him to jail so he could serve the sentence in a facility that coordinates drug rehabilitation services.
Davis at that time described the facility, Next Step Recovery Housing in Pittsburgh, as a “lockdown” treatment center for recovering addicts. It is similar to incarceration, he said, because participants’ activities are restricted, and they are tested for drug use.
Tomm Mutschler, senior deputy attorney general, objected to the placement because it was not part of the negotiated plea bargain.
As another condition of the plea bargain, Salisbury agreed to a voluntary disbarment. As of several months ago, he worked as a door-to-door salesman for a satellite TV service.
Salisbury is still on probation from the 2013 case. Solomon at the 2014 sentencing told Salisbury if he failed to complete the Next Step program, he would resentence him to jail. As of Monday, the Fayette County Adult Probation Office had not yet filed paperwork seeking to revoke his probation.
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©2015 Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.)