Wood & Nathanson is pleased to announce that, as a result of relentless, detailed work by Attorney Christopher Post, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office is moving to vacate and dismiss ninety-one additional drug convictions in sixty-four defendants’ cases that were tainted by the ever-growing Hinton Drug Lab scandal. In these cases, each of the defendants pleaded guilty to at least one drug offense despite the fact that laboratory testing subsequently proved that substances in question were not drugs at all. We are thankful that DA Rollins and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office chose to work proactively with Attorney Post to achieve a just result.
Defendant Never Told of Negative Drug Testing
Atty. Christopher Post also won a new trial and then dismissal for a defendant who was never told that the “drugs” he was convicted of possessing tested negative at the Hinton lab. Police had stopped him, tackled him, and claimed they found crack cocaine. He was subsequently charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine in a school zone. He pleaded guilty quickly to avoid the mandatory minimum school zone charge. While he was serving his sentence, testing at Hinton proved the substance was not drugs, just as he had claimed, but no one ever told him and continued serving his sentence. After the Dookhan and Farak scandals, Atty. Post helped identify similarly situated individuals while at the C.P.C.S. Drug Lab Crisis Litigation Unit. It appears there may be more than 300 similarly situated defendants.
Drug Lab Fallout Continues
The Massachusetts drug lab scandal is by no means over. None of the prior cases decided by the SJC dealt with the fact that disgraced chemist Sonja Farak worked at the Boston-area Hinton drug lab before she was caught stealing drugs and faking results at the Amherst drug lab. Atty. Christopher Post recently won a new trial and dismissal of charges where he showed that Farak’s volume of testing at Hinton at times surpassed Annie Dookhan’s, who was only able to achieve such results through fraud. He also showed that Farak made statements that suggest drug use while she was at the Hinton lab.