Dookhan might not have failed alone
It turns out that the rogue chemist whose falsified drug testing tainted thousands of court cases was not the “sole bad actor” in the scandal, new records reveal.
Middlesex Superior Court Judge Patrick M. Haggan this week unsealed nine sets of records that show the Office of the Inspector General had referred chemists and supervisors of the Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Jamaica Plain — other than Annie Dookhan — for potential criminal prosecution.
In the scandal’s wake, then-Gov. Deval Patrick shut down the Hinton Lab and prosecutors were forced to overturn convictions and only prosecute the relative handful of affected cases that could likely be won without the drug lab evidence. The roughly 31,000 defendants were awarded $14 million in a class-action settlement last June.
The new information shows that then-Inspector General Glenn Cunha had already referred at least one other chemist for possible criminal prosecution even before his office issued its March 2014 investigative report that found that one rogue chemist, Dookhan, had acted alone.
“The comprehensive review found that, other than Dookhan, no chemist intentionally falsified his or her test results, nor did Dookhan tamper with other chemists’ test results,” the OIG wrote in its report summary then.
It continued, “however, chronic managerial negligence, inadequate training and a lack of professional standards created the environment that allowed Dookhan to commit her crimes.”
Cunha subsequently referred at least three more chemists or supervisors from the Hinton Lab. The alleged misconduct included lying to investigators, mislabeling substances as drugs — including a nut — and putting illegal drugs into samples that didn’t actually contain them.
The scandal rocked two successive Massachusetts attorneys general. The scandal happened first under AG Martha Coakley and then under now-Gov. Maura Healey. This brandnew disclosure of others who may also be responsible now falls under new-AG Andrea Campbell, who said Tuesday that her office will “look into” what they can do with the information.
“This has covered two attorneys general before me, over two previous administrations, so I’m getting a handle on it. I will of course continue to follow the guidance of the court,” Campbell said during an interview on Boston Public Radio on WGBH at 1 p.m.
“But I can say this: that the mantra and one value in the office will always be transparency and justice, frankly,” she added. “And we have an opportunity when we get more guidance from the court to really look at how do we right the wrongs in these types of cases, how do we be forthcoming and how do we go after justice.”