A former corporate lawyer from Scott Township has been sentenced to over 12.5 years in prison for dealing meth.
James France, 62, will also have eight years of supervised release once he’s out of prison.
France was found guilty in March 2022 of distributing 50 grams or more of meth.
According to a release from the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, France was a lawyer with an Ivy League degree and worked at several Pittsburgh-based law firms before turning to a life of dealing meth.
On March 16, 2015, France was arrested in Illinois after authorities searched his car and found approximately 1,344 grams of meth along with scales, packaging material, syringes and more than $4,700. In May of 2016, authorities said one of France’s conspirators was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Administration in New York and led to identify France as a major meth supplier from the Pittsburgh area.
In late June of 2016, the DEA did a controlled purchase of $2,000 worth of meth from France’s Scott Township home. A lab analysis found it to be 55 grams of meth.
On July 29, 2016, around 1:38 a.m., Scott Township police responded to a home invasion at France’s home. When officers arrived, they found a person who appeared to be under the influence of drugs and reported that six armed men attempted to break into the home. No one responded when the officers called out for anyone inside and no one responded. The home was then cleared.
Due to the conditions of the home, officers believed the home could have contained a meth leb. They contacted the DEA, who determined the house wasn’t a meth lab and then obtained a search warrant for the home. During the search, officers found 430 grams of meth, around $8,000 and other evidence of meth distribution.
France was out on bond for other offenses when police arrested him on June 30, 2017, after another search warrant at his home. Authorities said that the search resulted in the seizure of a methamphetamine smoking apparatus, syringes, scales, packaging material, large sums of U.S. currency, and quantities of methamphetamine.
Authorities said throughout his court proceeding, the defendant tried to obstruct justice by lying, violating the conditions of his bond, threatening to beat a person’s grandparents “to within an inch of their lives” and verbally abusing his court-appointed counsel.
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