JP Drug Lab Scandal: Week in Review

After a quiet few weeks over Christmas and New Year’s the ongoing Hinton Drug Lab crisis came back with a roar this past week. Here’s what happened:

• The Boston Globe reported Wednesday that disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan’s husband, Surren, sent a text message to George Papachristos, former Norfolk Count assistant district attorney and a noted friend of Annie Dookhan, calling her a liar. According to the Globe: “This is Annie’s husband do not believe her, she’s a liar, she’s always lying,” according to an interview Papachristos gave to State Police on Oct. 3, 2012. “She is looking for sympathy and attention.”

• That same day, Dookhan faced a total of five charges in Norfolk and Middlesex counties related to her malfeasance as a chemist at the Hinton lab in Jamaica Plain. She pleaded not guilty to all of them. On Dec. 19, she pleaded not guilty to 15 charges in Suffolk Superior Court.

• Another criminal was arrested after being freed because Annie Dookhan was the chemist in a case against him. Jonathan Vaughan was arrested at a Chelsea McDonalds Tuesday night. He was drinking beer at the fast food restaurant, cops asked him to leave and he got disorderly. He began to fight with the officers and allegedly said, “I just got out on Annie Dookhan and I ain’t going back to jail.”

For more information on the state drug lab crisis, check out our topic page.