Dynamite Crack Gets Lawyer Suspended
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court suspended an attorney pending final discipline for a criminal conviction.
The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported on the criminal case
Upper St. Clair lawyer Guy Amatangelo admitted Friday that he is a crack cocaine user who hooked up with a Hill District drug gang supplied from New York, helping one of its members to obtain heroin and conspiring with him to buy crack to feed both their habits.
Mr. Amatangelo, 42, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to a count of conspiracy to distribute crack and another count of possession of a gun by a drug user.
Federal prosecutors said Mr. Amatangelo at one point offered a .25-caliber pistol to trade for drugs.
Mr. Amatangelo was among 13 people indicted in January 2014 on drug trafficking charges related to an operation based in the Hill and supplied from Brooklyn.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti characterized Mr. Amatangelo as a user more than a typical trafficker and said he was intercepted numerous times on a federal wiretap of a phone used by Dwight Hester of the Hill District, one of the 13 indicted.
Mr. Rivetti said Mr. Hester, along with two other local men, Fredrick Mack of Munhall and Allen Turner of the Hill District, traveled to Brooklyn to obtain drugs through a liaison there, Royance Lambert.
Wiretaps revealed that in the fall of 2013, someone named “LA” called Hester saying he was “in a rush” to buy crack. After an initial deal, the man described the crack he’d received as “dynamite” because it was so good.
Mr. Rivetti said agents determined that “LA” was Mr. Amatangelo and that he later tried to help Mr. Hester, who complained of being sick from withdrawal, obtain heroin and cocaine to soothe his own addiction. In October 2013, the two pooled their money for a deal to buy crack, Mr. Rivetti said. Mr. Amatangelo also indicated he could trade his gun for drugs if need be.
Mr. Rivetti said the two spent $300 in cash for crack on Oct. 5, after which police arrested Mr. Amatangelo on state charges.
He was later indicted on federal drug conspiracy charges, and prosecutors also charged him directly with the gun offense.
U.S. District Judge David Cercone set sentencing for Sept. 9.
(Mike Frisch)