Roslindale Man Faces New Gun Charge After Prior Was Dismissed in Drug Lab Scandal

A Roslindale man whose previous gun charge was dismissed because the assigned chemist is under investigation - allegedly caught this weekend by Boston Police in a harrowing rooftop chase - had bail set at $200,000 on Monday for new gun and drug charges.

Maykor Baez, 20, of Roslindale, was one of six men held on high bails on Monday at their arraignments on gun and drug charges, according to a press release from Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley.

Dorchester District Court Judge James Coffey imposed $200,000 cash bail for: Maykor Baez, 20, of Roslindale; Jonathan Garcia, 23, of Jamaica Plain; Jose Justiniano, 38, of Dorchester; Leidys Lugo-Mejia, 24, of Dorchester; and Gilbert Rodriguez-Diaz, 22, of Dorchester. Bail was set at $50,000 for Josue Q. Santana, 31, of Dorchester. 

Baez's bail on an open case charging him with unlawful possession of a firearm was also revoked by the judge. He had been charged with distribution of a Class B substance in connection with that complaint after Boston Police arrested him with a loaded .22 caliber semiautomatic handgun and a small quantity of a substance believed to be cocaine after a drug transaction on Feb. 10, 2011.

Suffolk County prosecutors terminated the drug charges in December of last year due to criminal charges against Annie Dookhan, the former Department of Public Health chemist, who certified the substance as cocaine. The gun case is still pending, according to a press release.

“Unfortunately, the defendants who benefit most from the DPH lab crisis are the most serious offenders,” said Conley via press release. “They’re the gun offenders, the violent offenders, and the repeat offenders.”

Rooftop Chase by Boston Police

Baez and the five other co-defendants were arrested this past weekend by Boston Police after a call for several people with guns at 580 Blue Hill Ave., around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Responding officers allegedly spotted Baez, Lugo-Mejia, and Rodriguez-Diaz running from the back of that building into another. Officers followed them, pursuing them up the stairs, and jumping from roof-to-roof before apprehending them. Justiniano and Santana were allegedly apprehended on the third floor of 580 Blue Hill Ave., and Garcia in an apartment on the second floor.

During the execution of a search warrant, Boston Police recovered one handgun and four half-kilo bricks of marijuana in the alley on one side of 580 Blue Hill Ave.; a second handgun on the other side of the building, and a third handgun allegedly inside the second-floor apartment where Garcia was arrested.

Also in that apartment officers seized more bricks of marijuana; about 184 grams of heroin in four bags; about 225 grams of cocaine in two bags; about 34 grams of crack cocaine in two bags; and evidence of drug distribution that included a scale, baggies, cutting agents, and ledgers.

The defendants are scheduled to return to court on March 29.