I don't think people should use drugs for recreational purposes.... on the other hand, when the government has people who sit and lie, or do things to make convictions in drug cases, that's another story.

Chemist arrested in Mass. state drug lab scandal; arraignment slated later today in Boston

E-mail | Print | Comments (34) 09/28/2012 12:30 PM
John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

State Police escorted Annie Dookhan, the chemist at the heart of the state drug lab scandal, from her home this morning.



By Mark Arsenault, Milton J. Valencia, John Tlumacki and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff


FRANKLIN — Annie Dookhan, the former state chemist who has sparked a scandal that may undo thousands of drug convictions in Massachusetts, was arrested at her home today by State Police.


With her hands handcuffed behind her back and troopers escorting her, Dookhan walked out of her home and into a police cruiser, a brief walk witnessed by a large collection of reporters who had gathered on her street since word of her impending arrest began circulating this morning.


The bespectacled Dookhan’s hair was tied back, and she wore jeans and a gray sweatshirt. She did not say anything. Before the cruiser drove away, her husband stepped out of the house, spoke briefly to a state trooper, and returned inside.


Dookhan was to be taken to the State Police barracks in Foxborough for booking. She is expected to appear for arraignment later today in Boston Municipal Court on two counts of obstruction of justice and one of falsifying her academic record.


She allegedly lied about the integrity of drug evidence she analyzed in two instances and allegedly lied under oath about having a master’s degree in chemistry, the attorney general’s office said in a statement.


According to State Police reports obtained this week by the Globe, Dookhan has admitted to improperly removing drug evidence from storage, forging colleagues’ signatures, and not performing proper tests on drug evidence for “two or three years.”


State Police have warned defense attorneys and prosecutors in eastern Massachusetts that Dookhan tested 60,000 drug samples involving 34,000 criminal cases during her nine-year career in the now-closed Department of Public Health drug lab in Jamaica Plain.


Authorities say 1,141 people are serving drug-related sentences in state prisons and county jails in cases where she was involved in testing the drugs.


Prosecutors say that she was charged under a state law that forbids misleading “a judge, juror, grand juror, prosecutor, police officer, federal agent, investigator, defense attorney, clerk, court officer, probation officer or parole officer.”


Dookhan also claimed on her resume — and during sworn testimony — that she had a master’s degree in chemistry from University of Massachusetts Boston, a claim that school officials have said was false because they have no record of issuing her such a degree.


At least 20 drug defendants have been freed, had their bail reduced, or had their sentences suspended, because the evidence in their cases was analyzed by Dookhan. Many more are likely to be freed as the investigation continues by attorney David E. Meier, named by Governor Deval Patrick to determine the scope of the scandal’s impact.


Dookhan told State Police she recorded drug tests as positive when they were negative “a few times” and sometimes tested only a small sample of the drug batch that she was supposed to analyze, the Globe reported this week.


“I messed up. I messed up bad. It’s my fault,” she told state troopers who visited her Franklin home on Aug. 28. She insisted that she acted alone, saying, “I don’t want the lab to get in trouble.”


The fact that a substance seized from an alleged criminal has been proven to be drugs by scientific testing is a keystone of any drug case. Law enforcement officials thus must be extremely scrupulous and painstaking about the handling of seized drugs. Otherwise, questions can arise about whether the material tested is the same material as that seized from the defendant and whether the tests performed on it were accurate.





John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.