According to the Houston Chronicle, a criminal defense attorney, who was 78 years old and accused of smuggling drug-laced documents to inmates in Harris County Jail, passed away in January due to natural causes, as confirmed by his attorney.
According to court records, the charges filed in 2023 against Ronald Lewis have been dismissed. Lewis, who was accused of using his attorney status to smuggle paperwork sprayed with synthetic marijuana into the jail, had his case dropped. Tyrone Moncriffe, an attorney who represented Lewis pro bono, mentioned that Lewis found himself in a dire financial situation in his later years, partly due to his passion for helping those who couldn’t afford legal representation.
“Helping people who didn’t have was really important to him,” Moncriffe said. “He sacrificed a lot of his own income working virtually pro bono himself, and I think that’s what got him into economic trouble.”
The arrest of Lewis occurred following an investigation by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office into a string of fatal overdoses at the jail. Public bail documents suggest that some of these overdoses may have been linked to the documents he delivered.
The allegations against Lewis marked the beginning of a string of similar prosecutions, resulting in the arrest of several other attorneys on drug-related charges. Additionally, jail staff recently enforced a policy that significantly limited the exchange of documents between attorneys and their clients. This policy was implemented just days before Lewis’ arrest.
According to the Chronicle, police had stated that Lewis was responsible for distributing approximately 150 documents containing synthetic THC to inmates at the Harris County Jail. These documents accounted for about 20% of the total number of laced papers seized by jail staff during a three-month period in late 2023. However, officials clarified that they did not believe the inmates receiving the papers were Lewis’ clients.
After his arrest, Lewis was released from jail on bond. It’s important to note that he was not in custody at the time of his death.
A search on the Harris County District Clerk’s site revealed numerous criminal cases that were handled by the late attorney, Lewis. After completing his law degree at Texas Southern University’s law school, Lewis became a licensed attorney in 1982. His obituary also mentions that he served as a U.S. Army veteran and was deployed to the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968.
