Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Lack of accreditation and problems with the reporting structure were determined to be contributing factors in the unprecedented Hinton Drug Lab crisis.
A joint audit committee convened Wednesday at the State House to determine where to pin blame beyond disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan in the ongoing Hinton Drug Lab crisis. The committee, which is a combination of the state Post Audit and Oversight Committee, Joint Committee of Public Health and Joint Committee on Public and Homeland Security, heard testimony from a variety of officials directly and indirectly involved with the scandal, which has jeopardized at least 34,000 criminal cases in Massachusetts. At the hearing – the second of what one committee member termed “many” – the committee sought to go beyond Dookhan’s malfeasance, and tried to figure out how the Hinton lab was being run, why it operated without proper accreditation and …
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Governor Deval Patrick on Monday picked the state's inspector general, Glenn Cunha, to lead a widespread probe of what went wrong at the State Drug Lab in JP, where thousands of cases may have been compromised.
Governor Deval Patrick has tapped the state's inspector general to lead a wide-ranging probe of the State Drug Lab, where evidence in thousands of cases may have been compromised. "The governor called for an independent assessment of the drug lab to complement the ongoing criminal and central office investigations into chemist Annie Dookhan’s wrongdoing and to determine whether the lab’s failures are limited to Dookhan and her supervisors and managers, all of whom have been removed from their positions," the governor's office said in a statement. Inspector General Glenn Cunha, a former managing attorney at the Attorney General's office, will look at systemic issues while the attorney general herself, Martha Coakley, focuses solely on …
Saturday, November 3, 2012
The man who was set free earlier this month then became a wanted fugitive is now being held without bail.
At a hearing Friday afternoon in Suffolk Superior Court, alleged South End drug dealer and convicted rapist Marcus Pixley's bail was revoked and he was taken into custody. The decision was made after Pixley tested positive for cocaine on Friday afternoon, despite conditions of release ordering him to remain drug free. Pixley was also allegedly on cocaine when he was arrested by police in early October. Pixley, who became a wanted fugitive after he was released on lowered bail because of the scandal at the Jamaica Plain State Drug Lab, was re-arrested on Oct. 5. He is a convicted rapist and also has numerous convictions for armed robbery, threats, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon spanning the last 25 years. Pixley is due …
Thursday, November 1, 2012
The Web site "Vice" interviewed Scott Allen, senior assistant metro editor for The Globe, about the impact of the State Drug Lab scandal. Its a nice overview of what's been happening and what's likely to happen.
It can be difficult to wrap one's mind around the consequences of the State Drug Lab scandal. The numbers involved — at least 34,000 drug samples, perhaps as many as 190,000 cases all told — are staggering. The Web site "Vice" posted a nice overview of the scandal on Saturday. They interviewed Scott Allen, senior assistant metro editor at the Globe. The whole thing is well worth a read if you want to understand the impact of so-called "rogue chemist" Annie Dookhan and the crisis in the state's justice system. Here's a taste: Q: Wow. So we should stay tuned to this, right? This story’s got legs. A: Yeah it does. As time goes on, it doesn’t get better. It gets worse. You can clear the books of a lot of these, but you put more and more and …
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Saturday, October 27, 2012
A Roslindale man has become the first suspect to be re-arrested on drug charges after being freed because of the evidence-tainting scandal at the State Drug Lab in JP.
Police are warning the convicted drug dealers going free in the JP Drug Lab scandal that there will be zero tolerance if they offend again. But on Friday, prosecutors say, that's exactly what happened. A Roslindale man was held on $100,000 cash bail on new cocaine trafficking charges. The reason he was out of jail was that, in a previous trafficking case, evidence against him had been handled by chemist Annie Dookhan. She's the state employee accused of mishandling thousands of drug samples, including faking test results. Enrique Camilo, 37, was arrested Friday on a warrant at Logan Airport while returning from the Dominican Republic, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Spokesperson Jake Wark. Boston Police recovered about a …
A look back at developments in the evidence tainting scandal out of the shuttered State Drug Lab in JP. Thousands of drug dealer convictions could be overturned.
New estimates of the cost to clean up the State Drug Lab scandal came into focus this week. And the numbers are frightening for taxpayers. Veteran courts journalist John Ellement of the Globe uncovered that $35 million has already been asked for by various arms of government scrambling to deal with the fallout. "Rogue chemist" Annie Dookhan at the State Drug Lab in JP was allowed, over the course of nine years, to mishandle 34,000 or more samples in drug cases. Convicted drug dealers are already going back on the streets as a result. This week Ellement reported that the state judiciary needs $8.7 million to handle as many as 136,000 criminal cases that may have been corrupted. That's every single case that passed through the State Drug Lab…
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Three prominent legal groups say Attorney General Martha Coakley must hand over her investigation of the JP State Drug Lab scandal to an independent body.
Can the state's top law enforcement official be trusted to carry out the probe into what went wrong at the State Drug Lab in JP? Several legal and civil liberties groups said "No" on Wednesday. The Massachusetts Bar Association, American Civil Liberties Union and Committee for Public Counsel Services sent a letter calling on Attorney General Martha Coakley to hand the investigation to an independent body. "As unimpeachable as the Office of Attorney General is," read the letter, "an institution that prosecutes drug cases, supports the State Police unit that investigates drug cases and also supports drug cases by District Attorneys will be perceived as having a stake in the investigation's outcome." Brad Puffer, a spokesperson for the …
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Anthony Thames, 28, who was charged with murdering a Boston man in the South End last August, will remain held without bail, despite a separate drugs case against him that was handled by disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan.
A man charged with murdering a Boston man on a South End street corner last summer appeared in court on Monday because a separate drug charge against him was handled by the chemist responsible for the state drug lab scandal. However, his case was not touched by the judge. Anthony Thames, 28, was charged with first degree murder and firearm possession last year in the fatal shooting of 33-year-old Raymond Lemar near the intersection of East Berkeley and Harrison Avenue last August. Shortly after his arrest on that offense, Thames pleaded guilty to several drug charges, including distribution of cocaine. But as it turns out, that cocaine was handled by disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan in the Jamaica Plain state drug lab, a fact that has …
Saturday, October 20, 2012
A roundup of developments in the shocking breakdown at the State Drug Lab in JP, in which a chemist was allowed to mishandle drug evidence for years.
Courts continued to set convicted drug dealers free as the state deals with the fallout from the alleged actions of a "rogue chemist" who was allowed to mishandle drug evidence for years. Here's a roundup of key developments this week as the state works through more than a thousand cases in which people are behind bars on evidence handled by Annie Dookhan, the disgraced worker at the shuttered State Drug Lab in JP. For all of Jamaica Plain Patch's coverage of the JP Drug Lab Scandal, please visit our topic page on the issue.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Boston City Councilors look to work with state with many chronic offenders re-entering the city due to the Jamaica Plain Drug Lab scandal.
With as many as 600 convicted drug dealers headed to the streets of Boston before their full sentences are up, city councilors are brainstorming about how to handle the influx. "We have seen the news. We know there are and will be several hundred more people released into our community... due to the crisis at the JP state lab," said District 7 Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson at Wednesday's council meeting. A "rogue chemist" may have mishandled evidence in 34,000 cases over nine years of work at the shuttered State Drug Lab in Jamaica Plain. State and municipal officials have been struggling to deal with the fallout as convicted drug dealers get released early. Calling for an immediate hearing to address the issue, Jackson said many of …
