Another ‘Dookhan Defendant’ Back Behind Bars

Another defendant who benefitted from alleged malfeasance by ex-chemist Annie Dookhan is heading back to prison on new drug trafficking charges.

Pedro Hernandez, 46, and his stepson, Elionel Burgos, 19 of Hyde Park, were each arraigned in West Roxbury District Court Tuesday on a charge of trafficking in heroin, according to a statement from the office of Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley.

Assistant District Attorney Kristina Kerwin requested that bail for each defendant be set at $50,000 and that each be ordered to wear a GPS monitor – a condition that Hernandez was already subject to as a condition of his stay of sentence.  Judge Catherine Byrne set Hernandez’s bail at $10,000 and Burgos’ at $2,000.  She declined to order GPS monitoring as a condition of release for Burgos. 

Hernandez was convicted in Suffolk Superior Court in 2010 of possession with intent to distribute a Class A substance and distribution of a Class A substance.  However, his five-year state prison sentence was stayed in December due to allegations of misconduct against Dookhan, a former Department of Public Health chemist now under indictment for malfeasance at a Department of Public Health drug testing facility in Jamaica Plain.