A Northampton County attorney facing charges in two drug cases was sent to prison Monday because he refused to submit a urine sample for a drug test.<\/p>\n
Attorney Stanley J. Margle III relented and provided the urine sample while in Northampton County Prison on Monday evening, according to Assistant District Attorney Derek Richmond. It\u2019s unclear whether Margle\u2019s cooperation will earn him his release, and if so, when.<\/p>\n
Margle was charged with two minor drug offenses in February and July. Margle has refused to provide a urine sample for a drug test as a condition of his bail. The demand came from the Northampton County Pre-Trial Services Division on Oct. 7, according to Richmond.<\/p>\n
Senior Judge William Mahon issued an order Monday requiring Margle to provide the sample. When Margle refused to comply, Mahon held a hearing at 2 p.m. Monday and ordered Margle to go to Northampton County Prison to provide the sample, Richmond said.<\/p>\n
Margle arrived at prison at 2:24 p.m. Monday, Richmond said. When he failed to provide the sample, he was brought back before Mahon at 3:27 p.m. Monday, found in contempt and sentenced to 30 to 60 days in county prison, Richmond said.<\/p>\n
Then, Margle agreed to provide the urine sample, Richmond said.<\/p>\n
Margle\u2019s attorney, Erv McLain of Bethlehem, was told by Judge Mahon he could file a motion to reconsider or amend Mahon\u2019s sentence if the urine sample were provided \u201cin a timely fashion.\u201d The motion hasn\u2019t been filed yet, Richmond said. A prison worker confirmed Margle was still incarcerated Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
McLain didn\u2019t respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Police say Margle had two bags filled with cocaine inside a fake cigar case on Feb. 13, 2025<\/a>. Court records say Northampton County sheriffs\u2019 deputies found the drugs in a briefcase left behind by Margle in Northampton County Juvenile Court. A razor blade and two straws, allegedly used to snort cocaine, were also in the bag, records say.<\/p>\n Margle allegedly left his briefcase behind again on July 23, 2025<\/a>, this time in a mediation room in the county courthouse. Sheriffs\u2019 deputies allegedly found a black magnetic box and a red straw inside the box. Both tested positive for cocaine residue, court records say.<\/p>\n Margle has accused a \u201crogue police officer\u201d of planting the drugs and paraphernalia to frame him. <\/p>\n Margle, 68, of Palmer Township, is a prominent divorce attorney in the Lehigh Valley and serves as the solicitor for Wilson Borough. His law office is in Bethlehem Township. He\u2019s practiced law<\/a> since 1983, his website<\/a> says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Northampton County attorney facing charges in two drug cases was sent to prison Monday because he refused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-104624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}