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Medical student faces cocaine charges
 


 

ABINGDON, Va. – A medical student who was spending May studying at Johnston Memorial Hospital faces drug charges after authorities say they found cocaine, marijuana, and anabolic steroids inside his residence on Thursday.

Phillip Allan Monk, 25, a Honaker, Va., native, was arrested after a 4:20 a.m. police raid at his residence on Abby Lane in Abingdon.

A quarter-pound of cocaine, an ounce of marijuana and several types of oral and anabolic steroids were found inside the residence, police said.

A representative from Johnston Memorial Hospital confirmed Monk is a medical student at Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, Va. As part of the curriculum for medical students, Monk was spending a month on a clinical rotation at the hospital.

"He is not an intern, he is not a resident, he was simply doing an educational rotation," Johnston Memorial spokeswoman Brook Lambert said.

Authorities did not seem to be familiar with his JMH background.

"This guy wasn’t on radar for us," Abingdon Chief of Police Tony Sullivan said. "We just had not had any complaints in that area where he lived, and you know his name had never come up when we brought in our other informants ... he was just a new name."

Monk is charged with possession with the intent to distribute cocaine, possession of cocaine, and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana. The cocaine seized from Monk’s residence was valued at $12,000, authorities said.

Charges stemming from the seized steroids are pending results of laboratory tests, said Sullivan.

Police were led to Monk after a pair of drug arrests in Russell County, Va.

Authorities said undercover officers with the Russell County Sheriff’s Office and the Virginia State Police purchased cocaine from Josh Pruitt, 23, of the Poor Farm section of the county, and Melissa White, 27, of Richlands, Va., on Wednesday.

Pruitt and White both were charged with distribution of cocaine and conspiracy to possess cocaine. Additionally, Pruitt was charged with possession of cocaine, and White faces conspiracy to distribute cocaine, possession of marijuana and conspiracy to possess marijuana.

Information from those arrests led authorities to obtain a search warrant for the Abby Lane residence, which is how Abingdon police became involved in the investigation, Sullivan said.

Monk was suspended from his rotation at the hospital, according to a JMH statement released Thursday afternoon.

bcarney@tricities.com | (276) 645-2568