Judge Gives Probation to Dental Tech Who Sold Oxycodone to Her Boss
NOTTINGHAM—A dental assistant who supplied a Nottingham dentist with oxycodone was given probation Wednesday and ordered to complete drug treatment.
Samantha Cook, 32, worked part-time for periodontist Dr. Andrew T. Fried at Perry Hall Family Dental before her November arrest on a charge of distribution of narcotics. She pleaded guilty in Baltimore County Circuit Court to selling more than $100,000 worth of opioids over two years to her boss, according to the Maryland Office of the Attorney General.
Judge Thomas Tompsett sentenced Cook to 10 years in prison and suspended the entire sentence. Cook will be on three years’ supervised probation and must complete 100 hours of community service and a drug treatment program.
“You basically balled your whole life up and threw it away for drugs,” Tompsett told Cook. “I can assure you this, if you come back to this court with one positive urinalysis during the course of my probation, I’m going to ball you up and throw you into jail, just like you threw your life away.”
An attorney for the AG’s office had recommended Cook be sentenced to 60 days in jail.
“The state’s position is that she is no better than a street dealer who sells drugs and she needs to be held accountable,” said Assistant Attorney General Carolyne Evans.
In Fried’s plea agreement in December, he was given a 10-year suspended sentence, with one day to serve in jail for drug distribution and prescribing violations.
The dentist admitted snorting crushed pills in the mornings before seeing patients, according to Evans. Both Cook and Fried were addicts and would split pills from the prescriptions he wrote for her, according to attorneys from both sides.
Fried is now excluded from participating in federal healthcare programs.
The case began when police received a report in 2024 that Fried was “nodding out” during patient procedures, Evans said. The person making the complaint also said Fried was buying pills from Cook, a licensed dental radiation technologist.
From January to May, 2025, the Attorney General’s Office surveilled Fried and Cook. Police also placed GPS trackers on both their cars, Evans said. Investigators saw Cook pick up prescriptions from a pharmacy, medication illegally prescribed to her by Fried.
Cook also obtained pills from several family members, according to her attorney.
She told investigators she charged Fried $30 for 20 mg pills and $25 for 15 mg pills. She would leave the pills in a cupholder of Fried’s unlocked car.
Some of the family members Cook obtained pills from were Medicaid recipients, Evans said.
“So part of that drug supply she sold to Fried was paid for by the taxpayers’ dollars,” Evans said.
Cook’s defense attorney, Clarissa Ann Lindsey, said Cook had been abusing drugs since she was a teenager but stopped “cold turkey" when she learned of the investigation.
Lindsey said Cook’s life took a turn for the worse in high school when her father and primary caregiver died in the line of duty as a Baltimore City firefighter.
The arrest was a “huge wake-up call,” for Cook, Lindsey said. She’s currently enrolled in outpatient drug treatment and continues to work in the dental field. Lindsey said Cook takes full responsibility for her actions. She told the judge Fried was in a position of power and used Cook, who was in the “trenches of addiction” and trying to maintain her job.