Boston (AP) — Drug defendants whose cases have not yet been dismissed due to rampant illegal activity in Boston laboratories will file a new trial unless they can prove that the evidence specific to their case is contaminated. The judge ruled on Wednesday that he was not eligible.
Tens of thousands of convictions have already been thrown for theft at another Massachusetts laboratory, as well as tampering at one of the worst scandals in the United States, the State Drug Testing Laboratory. According to the Public Defender Office, potentially hundreds of thousands of other defendants could still challenge their convictions.
High Court Michael A. Judge Ricciuti’s decision dismissed the motion of the convicted cocaine trafficker Justino Escobar, backed by Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins. Rollins is awaiting confirmation of President Joe Biden as a candidate for the Massachusetts Federal Attorney.
The judge’s decision to generally invalidate all cases handled by the Boston Institute should support mass dismissals based on evidence from William A. Hinton State Institute as well as the rest of the defendants. It’s also a blow to Rollins, who asked the judge. ..
“Escobar does not provide specific facts to justify the remedy in his own case. He also has sufficient facts and legal authority to justify the global remedy he seeks. We couldn’t provide it, “Ricciuti wrote.
Rollins had asked the judge to ask the state Supreme Court for a “global remedy” from the prosecutor dealing with the Hinton case. Ricciuti refused to do so, saying Rollins did not provide sufficient evidence to justify the request.
The ruling means that the proceedings over contaminated drug testing could be postponed for years to come, and state prosecutors to defend taxpayers from the drug conviction. It costs a huge amount of money.
The state’s public advocacy office estimates that up to 250,000 narcotics could be convicted based on the Hinton case from 2003 to 2012. 70,000 of them are in Suffolk County.
Rollins said he would appeal to the state Supreme Court on Wednesday.
“Systematic problems require systematic solutions,” Rollins said in a statement. “It would be very inefficient, apparently unfair, and apparent to have individual parties affected by terribly widespread government misconduct sue just resolutions in about 70,000 individual proceedings. Is unfair. ”
Escobar’s lawyer also expressed disappointment.
“We respect and appeal to the conclusions of the Superior Court,” said James P. McKenna.
The Public Defense Commission, the state’s public defense counsel office that supported Rollins, said the decision did not end their efforts.
“We are disappointed with this decision, but our fundamental goal is the same: to ensure that all convictions contaminated by this drug lab mismanagement are abandoned,” said Chief Counsel. Anthony Benedetti said in a statement.
A scandal in which drug tests were tampered with or stolen at the currently closed state laboratories in Hinton and Amherst cost taxpayers in Massachusetts at least $ 30 million in relief costs.
In 2009, Escobar pleaded guilty to one case of trafficking in cocaine weighing more than 14 grams. He was sentenced to eight to twelve years in state prison. The drug in his case was tested at Hinton in 2008, and he began to challenge his conviction in 2015.
Escobar’s lawyer and Rollins have all evidence tested there during that period due to a large-scale illegal activity in Hinton (as outlined in the 2014 and 2016 State Inspector General’s report). Claimed to be suspicious.
However, Ricciuti said there was no clear evidence in Escobar’s case that a particular chemist committed an illegal act in testing a drug in his case.
Ricciuti needs Escobar to empirically prove “bad government illicit activity” prior to his guilty plea and show that the illicit activity occurred in his case before a new trial was granted. Said there is.
Ricciuti also noted that the Supreme Court had previously refused to wipe out drug convictions based on tests at Amherst’s State Institute without clear evidence of illegal activity in certain cases. .. But in the end, it dismissed more than 35,000 convictions for illegal activity.
When chemist Annie Dookhan admitted to falsifying evidence at the Hinton Institute, a scandal broke out and was forced to shut down in 2012. Ducan was sentenced to at least three years in prison in 2013. Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the Amherst lab in 2014.
Both women are free after serving in a group of less than 5 years in prison.
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Mulvihill is an associate professor of computational journalism practice at Boston University and co-founder of the New England Investigative Journalism Center. Contributed by William J. Kole, AP’s New England Editor.
Judge refuses mass dismissal of case from contaminated drug laboratory | WGN Radio 720
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