Nearly two years later, 61-year-old Thomas McFarland handed over a cashier's check for $100,000 to a deputy attorney general and avoided prison time for what he described to a psychiatrist as "an effort to destroy myself."
McFarland was sentenced Friday to four years of probation and paid the borough of Avalon $100,000 to compensate for the cleanup costs from the August 2008 crime, which forced beaches to shut down days before the crucial Labor Day weekend.
The Wynnewood, Pa., resident pleaded guilty in March to unlawful discharge of water pollutants.
"I sincerely regret that I'm here today for this matter," McFarland told Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten. "It'll never happen again."
McFarland, who owns a house in the Avalon Manor section of Middle Township, admitted in March that he took his Boston Whaler into Townsend Inlet at the north end of Avalon on Aug. 22, 2008, and dumped a bag of waste from his dental practice into the water.
Dental waste started washing up the next day along a 15-block stretch of beach at the north end of Avalon. The waste included approximately 260 dental hypodermic needles, 180 cotton swabs and numerous blue and white plastic capsules used to hold dental filling material.
Avalon officials recovered a wrapped dental drill bit bearing a lot number that eventually was traced to McFarland's practice. On Sept. 2, 2008, McFarland went to the Avalon Police Department and admitted dumping the waste.
A report from a psychiatrist who is treating McFarland was submitted to the judge before he handed down the sentence. In it, the psychiatrist said McFarland was suffering from "acute and severe depression" and was "hopeless and suicidal."
McFarland described his actions to the psychiatrist as "an effort to destroy myself," the judge said.
McFarland had tried to enter the state's pretrial intervention program that would have prevented him from having a criminal record. But the state attorney general's office objected, and eventually both sides reached an agreement calling for the dentist to receive probation in return for paying Avalon $100,000 - $30,000 more than the borough had sought.
Deputy Attorney General Ed Bonanno said the restitution should serve as a deterrent to others considering similar conduct. But he did note the incalculable damage to New Jersey's reputation when medical waste forced closure of beaches three decades after similar pollution gave the state a black eye.
The judge noted McFarland had never been in trouble before and expressed confidence he will stay out of trouble in the future. The four-year probationary term can be ended early if McFarland continues to make progress with his psychiatrist, Batten added.
"The very notion of what occurred here is horrific," the judge said. But he added, "I have little doubt but that Dr. McFarland is now well on his way back to recovery and a stable existence."