Friday, October 12, 2012
The city's top brass has put in a "crisis re-entry plan" for inmates released from prison as a result of the JP State Drug Lab scandal.
With as many as 600 convicted drug dealers up for early release from prison, city officials say they have a plan to limit the damage to Boston's neighborhoods. "This is an emergency," Mayor Thomas Menino said in a joint press conference with Boston Police Chief Ed Davis and Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley. Menino outlined a plan for Boston to deal with the fallout from the alleged actions of a "rogue chemist" at the JP Drug Lab who may have tainted samples in thousands of drug cases. "We are concerned about the large number of individuals who will be released from state prison," Menino said, "with no plan for transition back into society, and just as concerned about those who may return to a lifestyle that can cause turmoil on…
Monday, October 8, 2012
Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley says low-level pushers don't stand to benefit most from the JP drug lab "disaster." He says that honor goes to hardened criminals moving lots of drugs or those with violent histories.
If you're accused of a drug crime, and the evidence against you was handled by the State Drug Lab in JP, it might not mean "get-out-of-jail free." But for defendants it sometimes means "get-out-of-jail for lower bail." On Thursday, a convicted rapist who faces new drug charges was due back in court. His bail had been lowered because chemist Annie Dookhan — accused of tainting evidence in thousands of cases — had tested evidence against him. The man, 52-year-old Marcus Pixley, skipped court and is on the lam, a fugitive from justice. Pixley, who was held on $5,000 bail in connection to a South End drug possession arrest, had his bail reduced to $1,000, which he posted. A judge ordered the reduction because samples in the case were tested…
In a hastily-called court session Friday morning to address cases potentially tainted by the State Drug Lab scandal, six of the first seven cases turned out to have nothing to do with chemist Annie Dookhan.
Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley pointedly criticized a court session Friday morning as a waste of time and resources. The session was to address 19 cases with supposed links to State Drug Lab chemist Annie Dookhan. She is accused of tainting evidence in 34,000 cases over many years. Six of the first seven cases called Friday turned out to have nothing to do with Dookhan, however. "The leadership of this court should be embarrassed," Conley said to a scrum of media during a court recess. Conley was careful to say that the judge in charge on Friday, Judge Mary Ann Driscoll, is not to blame for the court administration's bad planning. Conley said he has spoken with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Boston Police Commissioner Ed …
