Appeals Court ruled field test insufficient to fix Dookhan's potential taint
In February, the Massachusetts Appeals Court issued a ruling that may open the Hinton Lab scandal just a bit wider. The court decided that a judge erred in allowing a police officer to testify regarding his field analysis on samples prior to their testing by Annie Dookhan, since the Commonwealth did not provide sufficient evidence that the test was reliable and scientifically valid.
The case — Commonwealth v. Juan Carlos Rodriguez — is particularly notable in addressing the possibility that Annie Dookhan tampered with samples before they were sent to another lab for retesting.
From the ruling:
In yet another case affected by the wrongdoing of former State chemist Annie Dookhan […] we must reverse a defendant’s conviction of trafficking in heroin. In an effort to cure the taint from Dookhan’s association with the case as primary chemist, a police officer testified that he performed a field test of the substance seized from the defendant, which proved that the substance was heroin. The testimony was admitted, over the defendant’s objection without establishing the scientific reliability of the field test. We conclude that the admission of this evidence was prejudicial error and that the defendant is entitled to a new trial.*
The Commonwealth has not yet said if they will appeal up to the Supreme Judicial Court.
Read coverage from WBUR here.