Crime Lab Scandal Rocks Massachusetts - Rogue Scientist May Have Tainted Over 40,000 Cases

Massachusetts is the beginning of the end.
Romney comes from Mass.
That is where they started the mandatory healthcare.
is a laboratory in and of itself.
if you wanna know where the nation is going watch what they do there

With test mix ups and/or tainted samples, this means that the state now has no evidence against those who were convicted of drug crimes. If they are freed, they will be protected under Double Jeopardy---if new evidence is later discovered. Quite the predicament Massachusetts is in. CNN claims the cases are over 60,000.

"Even if the drug samples still exist for retesting," said Travayiakis, the defense will argue the evidence cannot be trusted.

[link to www.boston.com]

Just think of the costs that the taxpayers are going to have to eat over each one of the cases that Annie Dookhan handled. This is pretty big news.

It's kind of scary how that woman has potentially ruined thousands of lives. Why did she taint evidence and claim samples were higher; thus, resulting in stricter sentences for those that are now sitting in jail?

Not only is the credibility of Dookhan's samples on the line, so are the chemists that worked with her.

"I run the quality control/quality assurance within the drug lab," said Annie Dookhan, according to the transcript (sworn testimony).

Among her responsibilities, she said, were "to make sure the balances are working appropriately, the machines are working appropriately, all the instruments are followed by the policies and procedures," and other duties.

"If she oversaw quality control or quality assurance, if there are any problems with those controls, it could affect samples that were tested by other chemists," said Anne Goldbach, forensic services director for the state's public defender agency.

[link to www.cbsnews.com]

This could potentially reach tens of thousands of cases from 2003 to 2012 that may have been compromised.

What a mess!

they are evicting all these douchbags to make room for debtors ) hahha suckers shoulda paid your bills

Wow.

Great news for all those pot smokers busted for doing something that shouldn't be illegal in the first place.

Standard practice required that two chemists sign off on each analysis, raising questions about whether any of her co-workers failed to catch the errors or botched their own testing, said a source with direct knowledge of the lab’s operation.

“This is one of the largest criminal [problems] in the history of the Commonwealth,” said Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey. “It will shake the entire foundation of the system. We’re faced with very difficult and complex decisions on thousands of cases. Our focus is on people who are wrongfully incarcerated, though I’m not suggesting they are not guilty. If you can’t use the evidence, a lot of the cases are going to be toast.”

[link to bostonglobe.com]

This is purely KARMA for the horrendous practice of locking up so many people for something that should be legalized and regulated like alcohol. I'm VERY HAPPY at this news. I hope, in some way, it leaves a crack in the corrupt system of supplying free manpower (slave prison labor) that ends in its destruction.

Here are a few of the top comments left by others in response to this story:


scott bieber • 3 days ago

I thought this might be about dna or serious crime lab evidence. But it's about drug convictions !! They want an easy solution ?? Legalize and regulate all drugs, coke, heroin, crack, everything. Societal costs of our failed drug criminalization pollcy is outrageous.Mexicans are being slaughtered, the Taliban makes money, so much death and hardship from trying to stop a natural inclination of humans.
23 up 5 down


j em • 3 days ago

"Talented defense attorneys will be able to strongly suggest that any results from that lab are tainted, and people who deserve to be incarcerated for a very long time are going to walk"

This statement and so many others like it, commit a terrible fallacy and perpetuate the draconian and un-American policy of prohibition and by extension, the dismal failure called the "war on drugs." This policy jams the courts and convicts and imprisons people for possession of "some drugs" (make up one-third of all arrests) demonized in a sham system of drug scheduling which by all appearances exists for the sake of safety when in fact, scheduling is not about safety or relative safety of drugs. Instead, scheduling of drugs as federal policy is fabricating outright lies that certain substances have no medical use--even when we know that cannabis has been described and used as medicine since prehistory. Even before humans were literate, they were cultivating a plant and co-evolving with it, along with their best friends, canis familiaris, the domesticated dog.

People should not be imprisoned for voluntarily taking substances as a personal choice, liberty among free and responsible adult citizens. Everyone knows cigarettes are bad for users and those around them, and the same goes for alcohol. There is an air of "caution" that surround these substances as potentially lethal, yet people are not imprisoned for these "legal" substances.

Imprisonment for a "very long time" for what are NON-CRIMES--in a system tainted with private prisons--is a travesty, paternalistic nonsense. Regulate all drugs. Let the punishment fit the crime, that is real crimes. Like theft, violence, and corruption

15 up 2 down


Brim Stone • 3 days ago

"There are often implicit pressures to help out prosecutors"
"The DAs are used to putting people in jail."
==

Gee i thought that prosecutors made a case, defense made a case, the judge put people in jail based on evidence in a fair trial. Stupid me.

Cops lie and plant evidence and coerce confessions ALL THE TIME.
It's high time to allow prosecutors to be subject to civil suit for misconduct.
It's high time to put a camera on every single cop.

16 up 4 down

I wonder if it was that bitch in those "GirlPower" PSAs of the late 90s who was always bragging about her "great job" working in the Mass. state crime lab -- fucking cunt.

That's all the police state is good for, providing jobs for losers who can't hack it in the private sector.

There is no honor anymore. Everyone working for the Government in any capacity is compromised and disloyal the the Public they swear to serve

OOPS! Double post......

Welcome to the United States of Corruption, you may thank the war on drugs...

umm retards unless you are really rich or really poor , nothing would stop your employer from saying you can smoke dope or you can work here, your choice.

Solution: blanket amnesty for all those convicted of drug "crimes" in Massachusetts, ever. Execution of the laboratory personnel responsible, and life imprisonment for the directors of the lab. Civil asset forfeiture of the laboratory and associated assets, seizure of the earned incomes of all laboratory personnel that ever worked there. Seized assets and proceeds from the sale of seized assets will go to a welfare fund for those under the amnesty program.

Jesus..... This means mass appeals that will tie up the court system for years. Who knows how many rapists and murderers will go free because of this.

Rogue my ASS!

That chemist was instructed by the District Attorney's office to trump up evidence so more serious convictions would earn MORE MONEY for the prison bond holders.

PERIOD.

This is what ALL District Attorneys do now. This is one of the most corrupt systems on EARTH, but they have figured out how to remove the money far enough from the scene of the crime that nobody can plausibly (or sanely) question it.

FUCK THE SYSTEM!

This

And.. ypou think Obama Care is better? It is not about health, but stealth tax increases and government controls. ObamaCare does not care whether you live or die. preferrably.. die.

from 5 yrs ago..they have been terrible for quite some time.

hMMMM. Sounds like an inside job for manufacuring perps for profit. Fucking scumbags, MORE LAMP-POSTS!

That sounds like a START.

and prison slave labor. why pay a working man $20/hr when you can pay the imprisoned man $2/hr.

it's diabolical.

Oh geezes. Didn't think about this. Unless that lab only handled drug-related lab tests and not DNA, etc, that relates more to other crimes. Could you imagine? OMG.

Nobody should ever go to jail for drugs anyway. It's a medical problem, not a legal problem.

Drug Lab Reports
2008 up until May 2012:

[link to www.mass.gov]

The Drug Analysis Laboratories provide forensic drug testing for illicit drugs seized by law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts, support investigations of the Division of Food and Drug regarding drug diversions and evaluate suspected tampering events.

Examples of services are:
Analyzing cocaine, heroin, marihuana seizures for city and town police departments.
Testing prescription drugs such as dilaudid from hospital pharmacies to detect substitution.
Analyzing over-the-counter drugs and alcohol products to detect tampering, including dilution or poisons.

An email alarm went out yesterday to more than 2,000 lawyers who represent criminal defendants throughout the commonwealth warning that irregularities at the state police crime lab in Jamaica Plain could affect their clients in drug cases while the attorney general investigates what went wrong. - Sept. 5th

[link to news.bostonherald.com]

It's going to really clog up the courts in MA. I bet the attorneys are happy. They're probably building up cases against the state to line their pockets even more.

with what money ? if they want out , they can sign a waiver and be on their way with an expunged conviction. if not they can languish until the hearing comes up in 5 10 15 20 years

So what was her motivation for faking the data?, who was paying her n the side?.....

I've always wondered if this type behavior was rampant among certain circles of prosecution people.