‘Dookhan Defense’ Rejected in Latest Drug Conviction

Although the substance he sold to an undercover officer which turned out to be heroin was originally tested by Annie Dookhan, a repeat offender has been convicted.

Julio Medina, 57, was found guilty March 27 in Suffolk Superior Court of selling five bags of heroin to a plainclothes officer in the South End in 2009, according to a statement from Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley.

The original drug evidence was tested by Dookhan, who is accused of falsifying evidence in thousands of state drug cases.

The jury deliberated in under 15 minutes, according to the statement.

“Given all the facts, anyone can see that the evidence in a drug case is never limited to merely the drugs,” Conley said in the statement. “There’s a sequence of events before and after the arrest. There’s a pattern of evidence surrounding the drugs, their packaging, and their distribution. The jury made the right call and they made it in record time – even without knowing this defendant’s long and egregious history.”

Boston Police submitted the drugs to the Department of Public Health drug-testing facility in August 2009 and Annie Dookhan was the confirmatory chemist. The substance in all six recovered bags of evidence was certified as heroin.

Medina defaulted at his 2010 trial date and was subsequently apprehended in late 2011. In June 2012, after learning of an earlier breach of protocol by Dookhan at the lab but before learning of the alleged malfeasance for which she is now criminally charged, prosecutors in an abundance of caution asked that the evidence in Medina’s case be re-tested. Once again, but this time by a different chemist, it was certified as heroin.

Dookhan’s alleged falsification of drug evidence during her tenure at the Hinton State Drug Lab in Jamaica Plain has led to the release of many people being held on drug charges. Some of those who have been released have been arrested on new charges.

A DA spokesman said the recidivism rate for those who are behind bars for drug-relate charges and then released is “100 percent.”