Corrupt crime lab chemist faces light sentence after ruining countless lives with falsified evidence

[AdamSmith]

A high school friend who is now a defense attorney in Florida posts to his facebook page, almost daily it seems, accounts from around the country of how incompetent, and frequently downright corrupt, state police crime labs are.

Corrupt crime lab chemist faces light sentence after ruining countless lives with falsified evidence

A lab analyst who may have tampered with as many as 40,000 cases in 9 years has been sentenced to 3-5 years in prison.

Posted on November 25, 2013 by PSUSA in News

Annie Dookhan ruined hundreds of lives. (Source: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters/Landov)

MASSACHUSETTS — In one of the largest frauds in Massachusetts history, a state crime lab analyst used her position of analyzing chemical evidence to intentionally forge results in order to get convictions for prosecutors with whom she had friendly ties, and to satisfy her drive to imprison drug offenders. After years of tampering with evidence her actions may have tainted more than 40,000 drug samples, involving thousands of defendants.

Annie Dookhan, a 35-year-old chemist employed by the State of Massachusetts, was known for her ability to process drug samples confiscated from suspects at triple the speed of her colleagues. Her work at the state crime lab in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain was regarded highly by prosecutors who could count on her to produce the results they needed to achieve convictions.

In reality she had spent years abusing her position and corrupting justice for her own amusement. She had affirmed the presence of drugs in samples that she had not bothered to test. She had forged signatures, tampered with evidence, and lied in court about her credentials to enhance her standing as an expert witness.

Her career of misconduct began to face scrutiny in 2010 when her work was audited due to the unusually fast processing times, but no evidence of corruption were discovered. In 2011, she was caught forging a colleague’s initials and improperly removing drugs from the evidence storage area for 60 Norfolk County cases, which led to her suspension. However, her lab duties and involvement in drug cases were somehow permitted to continue and she still testified as an expert witness in court. It was not until February 2012 that she was actually placed on administrative leave.

“I screwed up big time. I messed up. I messed up bad. It’s my fault. I don’t want the lab to get in trouble,” Dookhan was quoted saying in the police report.

Norfolk County D.A. Michael Morrissey reviews thousands of cases tainted by Annie Dookhan. (Source: Tovia Smith/NPR)

The state launched an investigation into Dookhan’s nearly decade-long career, costing tens of millions of dollars and the analysis of many legal experts and attorneys. “I don’t think anyone ever perceived that one person was capable of causing this much chaos,” said Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey. “You can see the entire walls full of boxes,” he said, gesturing at stacks of dusty file boxes towering six feet high. “In one of these cardboard boxes, there could be hundreds of cases … in each box.”

David Meier, a Boston attorney, was hired to determine the scope of the scandal. He found that in Dookhan’s 9-year employment with the lab, the cases of as many as 40,323 people might have been tainted. The thousands of defendants were called “Dookhan defendants.”

Defense attorneys argued that every piece of evidence handled by Dookhan should be considered untrustworthy and that their clients cases should be thrown out. And many have been — over 300 prisoners were released since her admission of altering evidence in 2012.

“Innocent persons were incarcerated,” said Justice Carol S. Ball of Suffolk’s Superior Court. “Guilty persons have been released to further endanger the public, millions and millions of public dollars are being expended to deal with the chaos Ms. Dookhan created, and the integrity of the criminal justice system has been shaken to the core.”

As her career was analyzed, she was discovered to have repeat­edly made up fanciful job titles for herself, such as “special agent of operations” for the FBI and other federal agencies. Her pathological lying even led her to claim in emails to be an “on-call terrorism super­visor.”

While coaching ­assistant district attorneys on trial strategy, she was quoted to have said that her goal was “getting [drug dealers] off the streets,” exposing her bias for finding evidence of guilt in the lab samples. Emails obtained by the Boston Globe reportedly exposed Dookhan’s strong desire to put criminals behind bars.

The ethics of her relationships with prosecutors was questionable. When Dookhan told a prosecutor in an email that she could not testify as an expert witness in her case, the female prosecutor replied, “No no no!!! I need you!!!” Apparently she was depending on Dookhan’s unique form of “expertise” to land her conviction.

Other prosecutors were so thrilled with Dookhan’s work that they fawned over her in emails and promised to take the chemist out for cocktails as a reward for her lab work. Dookhan was called a member of a prosecutor’s “dream team” by one district attorney.

One prosecutor with whom she was particularly friendly was Norfolk Assistant ­District Attorney George ­Papachristos. The two had a close working relationship. The Boston Globe reported:

Papachristos resigned October 2012 after the Boston Globe disclosed his flirtatious friendship with the lab analyst. They shared pet names for each other; hers was “kiddo,” his was “old man.” The two shared stories of their marital problems, career aspirations, and shared Greek heritage. Dookhan began using her maiden name, “Khan,” in her emails and claimed she was divorced. She once sent him an email saying that she needed a man “to love me and make me laugh.” ­Papachristos denied that the two had an affair, but his friendly text-messages caused Dookhan’s husband to step in and exchange words with the D.A. in 2009.

“Glad we are on the same team,” he once wrote Dookhan — including one day in May 2010 when he told her he needed a marijuana sample to weigh at least 50 pounds so that he could charge the owners with drug trafficking.

“Any help would be greatly appreciated!” he wrote, punctuating each sentence with a long string of exclamation points. “Thank you!”

Two hours later, Dookhan responded: “OK . . . definitely Trafficking, over 80 lbs.” ­Papachristos thanked her profusely.

The state has not pursued former district attorney Papachristos for any legal wrongdoing.

The state legislature has allotted $30 million for local prosecutors to reinvestigate cases of freed prisoners and see if they can charge them with crimes based on evidence not tainted by the crime lab. And that money is “just the tip of the iceberg.” The situation could cost Massachusetts over $100 million, reported the Boston Globe, in reanalyzing and retrying cases that were supposed to be already closed.

On November 22nd, Dookhan pleaded guilty to 27 counts, including obstruction of justice, perjury and tampering with evidence, and was sentenced to 3-5 years in prison, plus two years’ probation. Prosecutors had sought 5-7 years.

Its hard to quantify the amount of damage that Dookhan accomplished. She victimized hundreds of people — perhaps thousands — with her corrupt practice. Her miscarriage of justice caused innocent people to lose not only their freedom, but their children, their jobs, their spouses, their property, and years of their lives. Then there is the catastrophic burden she is responsible for placing on the taxpayers, which is estimated to exceed the extraordinary sum of $100 million.

The injustice she committed cannot be measured. And she will be out in 3-5 years.

Had she committed any number of non-violent drug or firearm offenses — that victimize no one — the penalty could easily reach 10 or 20 years in prison. But her admitted 9-year crime spree, that destroyed innumerable lives, earned her only a fraction of that punishment. In twisted irony, Dookhan turned out to be more of a menace to society in her government job than the thousands of non-violent drug offenders she obsessively sought to imprison could have ever hoped to be. But her punishment is less than many of theirs. Justice?

*****

UPDATE: A SECOND LAB CHEMIST HAS BEEN FIRED; DOUBT CAST OVER 190,000 CASES

A second crime lab “chemist” has been fired over doubts concerning her qualifications.

Kate Corbett, who worked in the same lab as Dookhan, claimed that she had a “chemistry degree” from Merrimack College.

Corbett never earned that degree, according to a report. She was actually a sociology major who took a few chemistry classes.

Using false pretenses, Corbett also may have testified as a chemistry “expert” in dozens of court cases, which could add to the devastation that Dookhan has already caused.

Defense attorneys argue that doubt has been cast over 190,000 cases which were processed by the Hinton lab, and all of them should be reviewed in the interest of justice.

http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/annie-dookhan-crime-lab-chemist-falsified-evidence/

[AdamSmith]

Here in N.C., in 2010 the Raleigh News & Observer published a series of investigative reports documenting a long history of appalling behavior in the State Bureau of Investigation crime lab.

ABA report on the mess: http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/criminal_justice_magazine/sp12_sci_evidence.authcheckdam.pdf

A recent update:

North Carolina’s crime lab scandal remains unaddressed

Posted on 9/24/2013by Gretchen Engel

NC Policy Watch

Across the country, serious lapses have been discovered in dozens of crime labs in the past two decades. Labs that provide key evidence in criminal trials, including death penalty cases, have admitted to using contaminated equipment and untrained employees, covering up questionable work, and falsifying test results.

But of all the scandals that have surfaced, affecting thousands of cases across the United States, the 2010 scandal in North Carolina’s crime lab remains among the worst, according to a new report by the American Bar Association.

Over a 16-year period, analysts in the State Crime Lab systematically withheld or distorted evidence in an attempt to secure convictions in at least 230 cases, including 10 in which the defendants were sentenced to death and three that resulted in executions. Five of those defendants remain on death row.

This came to light three years ago, but the question remains: What is our state going to do about it? So far, the answer seems to be very little.

Despite the state’s claim that district attorney’s offices have investigated all 230 cases identified in the audit, not one has been reopened at the state’s request. - See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/09/24/north-carolinas-crime-lab-scandal-remains-unaddressed/#sthash.8ruu42qT.dpuf

Yet, little by little, the evidence of this scandal’s human toll is emerging, thanks to the persistence of the defendants and their lawyers.

This summer, Greg Taylor received a $4.6 million settlement for the 17 years he spent in prison for murder because of falsified blood test results. Mike Peterson received a new trial because a discredited SBI analyst provided the blood evidence at his multi-million dollar trial in 2003, in which he was convicted of killing his wife. Now, the couple’s grieving children must endure another trial.

The 2010 crime lab audit identified the case of Patricia Jennings as one in which analysts failed to report test results showing that there was no blood on the wall and ceiling of the crime scene as prosecutors claimed at trial. Once Jennings’ attorneys learned of the concealed test results, they asked permission to conduct depositions of the analysts. At these depositions, which were held in February, more evidence of misconduct emerged. In June, the court ruled that Jennings was entitled to relief from her sentence of death on other grounds. After spending 23 years on death row, Jennings was sentenced to life imprisonment.

How many more families will be traumatized and new trials ordered before we decide it’s time to get serious about figuring out how many innocent and wrongfully sentenced people sit in North Carolina’s prisons and on its death row? Have we forgotten that the railroading of innocent citizens means that the true criminals continue to roam the streets?

The State Crime Lab says it has changed its procedures in recent years, but that does nothing to help people who are already imprisoned or awaiting their executions because of questionable evidence.

We need an exhaustive, independent review of all the State Crime Lab’s divisions — and of the cases in which questionable evidence was used. If the blood division was using junk science and hiding results in order to secure convictions, it is a distinct possibility that there were serious problems in the lab’s other divisions as well. Yet, all but the blood division remain unexamined.

Our state legislature says all we need to do to fix criminal justice in North Carolina is to speed up executions. But if state lawmakers really wanted to ensure our safety, they would guarantee a system that convicts the right people using solid evidence that will hold up under scrutiny — rather than rushing to execute people convicted by a tainted system.

- See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/09/24/north-carolinas-crime-lab-scandal-remains-unaddressed/#sthash.8ruu42qT.dpu

[MsGuy]

Have you lost your mind, AS?

They start digging around in the back files of the Crime Lab and no telling what kind of crap they would turn up. Remember the Mass. fiasco cost the state over $100,000,000.

I mean look-it: forget the expense to North Carolina's criminal justice system, one scum bag alone Greg Taylor raked in over 4 1/2 million dollars. That's our tax dollars at work!

I can just see your liberal ass sitting there right now thinking, "Yes, but Greg's no scum bag, he was framed."

Well, I ain't having none of that! He may have been innocent when he was convicted but, after 17 years in the North Carolina State prison system, he's bound to be a scum bag now.

And it's his present day scum bag self that's getting the money.

They ought to make it a felony to be falsely convicted in N.C. That would solve the problem once and for all.

Damn I'm clever!

They oughta make me Governor.

[AdamSmith]

They ought to make it a felony to be falsely convicted in N.C. That would solve the problem once and for all.

Fucking brilliant! Straight from your lawyer's heart.

They oughta make me Governor.

I would do it by decree if I could.

D.C. group lists McCrory among worst governors in America

[Guest hitoallusa]

Oh my MsGuy you are so cute.. I thought so.. Do I have to move to MS to support your gubernatorial campaign? I have lots of shoes to wear during the campaign so you have to give me my own truck.. I will work hard.

They oughta make me Governor.

[Guest hitoallusa]

Have you guys notice that her lawyer is so handsome???? I think I could fall into his arms and hug him... I need to check his hand to see whether he is taken and his shoes to know his fashion stye.. Anyways, poor innocent people sent to jail because of her??? I guess a lot of things could happen in this world. So sad..

[TampaYankee]

I think this case argues strongly for double testing of blind samples. By that I mean two different lab techs evaluating the same sample from an unknown subject. Neither tech would know who they are evaluating. More costly but then what will be the cost of cleaning this mess up with so many tainted cases to be reviewed and dispensed with? The government ought to spend whatever it takes to get results right, reliably.

Relying on the honesty of individuals leads to occasional failures with potentially very high costs. Another example is provided by the med tech druggie who recycled needles he used for his drugs that infected scores of people with Hepatitis C in a NH hospital. I believe he ran up that score in the midwest before he was finally caught and sentenced to 38 years in prison. It is a simple fact that certain individuals in critical jobs will fail to live up to their responsibilities that put others at risk.

[Guest hitoallusa]

Well I think overzealous prosecutors who want to be promoted and successful is an important factor in this. We can have independent multiple examiners to prevent this as TY stated but we have to do something about these misguided prosecutors. They got away this time but they are still on their duty waiting to prosecute the next victim. I think that's scary. Oh well I hope they learn their lesson and this doesn't happen again.

[TampaYankee]

Well I think overzealous prosecutors who want to be promoted and successful is an important factor in this. We can have independent multiple examiners to prevent this as TY stated but we have to do something about these misguided prosecutors. They got away this time but they are still on their duty waiting to prosecute the next victim. I think that's scary. Oh well I hope they learn their lesson and this doesn't happen again.

I agree that overzealous prosecutors exists in the system and taint it. They should be rooted out.

However, I see no such overzealousness in this case. This criminal ruined scores of lives and killed some of those with no more real remorse other than for getting caught. He truly was a craven druggie. There was no misguided prosecution here IMO.

[Guest hitoallusa]

I am not sure we are talking of the same case and the article? Who is he you are talking about? or somehow you misunderstood me. I am not saying the prosecutor for the chemist (Annie Dookhan) is overzealous. What I am saying is that overzealous prosecutors who want to win their cases are a problem in the legal system and may have contributed Ms. Annie Dookhan to behave like that. I am sorry about the wording.

I agree that overzealous prosecutors exists in the system and taint it. They should be rooted out.

However, I see no such overzealousness in this case. This criminal ruined scores of lives and killed some of those with no more real remorse other than for getting caught. He truly was a craven druggie. There was no misguided prosecution here IMO.

[MsGuy]

Oh my MsGuy you are so cute.. I thought so.. Do I have to move to MS to support your gubernatorial campaign? I have lots of shoes to wear during the campaign so you have to give me my own truck.. I will work hard.

Hito hosts a meet and greet fundraiser for MsGuy's campaign.

[TampaYankee]

I am not sure we are talking of the same case and the article? Who is he you are talking about? or somehow you misunderstood me. I am not saying the prosecutor for the chemist (Annie Dookhan) is overzealous. What I am saying is that overzealous prosecutors who want to win their cases are a problem in the legal system and may have contributed Ms. Annie Dookhan to behave like that. I am sorry about the wording.

As you state, I do believe we are talking about different cases. I assumed wrongly from the mention of my name that you were referring to my example posted. Really faulty of me to do. My apology.

[Guest Paragon]

San Francisco also had a corrupt crime lab technician who got too close to the cocaine she was examining. So much trust is placed in these people that oversight must be strong.

One other question on my mind: Do you ever see any evidence that police departments actually do destroy evidence after a case is over? It's certainly not public that I know of. All that cocaine, all those guns. Do they just come in one door and go out another...and not to the incinerator? I've never known a police department to be scrutinized on what they do with no longer needed evidence.

[AdamSmith]

Despite Scandals, Nation's Crime Labs Have Seen Little Change

by Deborah Becker

January 03, 2014 10:42 AM

NPR

The nation's crime labs are no strangers to scandal. Last year in Massachusetts, bogus testing by former chemist Annie Dookhan called into question tens of thousands of cases and led to the release of more than 300 people from the state's prisons.

There are currently no uniform standards or regulations for forensic labs. Congress could take up legislation this year to improve oversight, but critics are skeptical.

Scrutinizing The Analysts

Dookhan was sent to prison in November for falsifying drug tests, but many of the criminal cases affected by her misconduct are still in limbo.

"We're basically in this holding pattern where we keep waiting," says Boston defense attorney Todd Pomerleau, who represents about two dozen people convicted based on Dookhan's tests. "We've been waiting for the proverbial day in court."

When the scandal broke in August 2012, those incarcerated based on evidence Dookhan had tested did have a day in court. Many were identified immediately, and had their sentences stayed. More than 3,200 "drug lab" court hearings have been held.

Matt Segal, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, is looking at legal ways to try to get the state to deal with the affected cases more quickly.

"The state has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on this scandal, and what have we gotten for that expenditure? The answer is almost nothing," Segal says. "Certainly hasn't been justice; it hasn't been a better approach on the drug war."

Prosecutors say they're waiting for a court ruling on how to deal with all of the affected cases, and an investigation into all lab operations.

Massachusetts has the nation's largest lab scandal, so defense attorneys there are now more likely to question forensic testing, says Pomerleau, and to scrutinize the analyst involved — especially because Dookhan was convicted of lying about her credentials.

"She's testifying under oath apparently that she had a master's degree, and the Commonwealth couldn't even confirm whether she went to the school?" Pomerleau says. "I require my interns to show me a transcript, and apparently the lab had different protocols in place for employment."

In fact, there are no national regulations governing forensic analysts' credentials, and no uniform standards for the labs themselves. And there is more than one group that accredits labs.

'An Ethical Issue'

The nonprofit that accredits most of the crime labs in the U.S. is the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB). Its chief operations officer, John Neuner, says that accreditation can only go so far, and that the issue in Massachusetts probably was deeper.

"It just sounds like an ethical issue," Neuner says. "Certainly a laboratory can have all the policies and procedures in the world, but if you don't have ethical people working there, then you're going to have problems."

Accreditation from Neuner's group lasts for five years. It requires yearly inspections, which are announced, and corrective action plans are drawn up if violations are found. Neuner says that to his knowledge, no lab has ever had its accreditation revoked. The now-closed Hinton Drug Lab, where Dookhan worked, was not accredited. But forensic consultant Brent Turvey says that might have made things worse.

"In the Hinton Lab, if they were accredited, the incentive to commit the kind of fraud that Annie Dookhan was committing would have been higher, because the issue would have been maintaining accreditation," Turvey says. "In fact, the majority of labs where forensic fraud [is] exposed, the majority of them are ASCLD/LAB accredited."

Turvey says there have been at least 12 crime lab scandals in the U.S. in the past two years. With more criminal cases relying on forensics, he adds, lab oversight is something Congress needs to address.

"The forensic science community is not like any other community. It's not beholden to anyone other than the police and prosecutors," Turvey says. "The question is: Are we creating crime fighters, or are we creating scientists? And do we require them to tell the truth, or do we require them to help the police and prosecution?"

A report to Congress raised the same question five years ago, but there has been little movement toward change. In the Senate, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and John Cornyn of Texas are working to introduce legislation this year, according to a spokesperson.

In Massachusetts, most forensic testing is now overseen by state police. A chemist who had worked with Dookhan but was moved to the state police lab after the scandal broke was fired in November — for lying about her credentials.

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/05/259392234/despite-scandals-nations-crime-labs-have-seen-little-change

[RA1]

I am surprised that MsGuy didn't mention how the system works. For instance, without plea bargaining the system would flounder with extreme overload. The coroner's office is almost always a political one, whether elected or not (patronage) which inevitably leads to gross inefficiencies. The police consistently lie. The system is largely corrupt from top to bottom. What really provides justice is money and political patronage. If you have neither, good luck. I am afraid Diogenes or his ghost is still wandering around looking for an honest man.

Best regards,

RA1

[MsGuy]

Damn, RA1, have gone and turned Red in your dotage?

[RA1]

No, my buddy Joe McCarthy wouldn't let me.

Best regards,

RA1

[AdamSmith]

Something about red bushes.

[RA1]

That was MUCH later. Did you neglect to capitalize or use an apostrophe?

Best regards,

RA1

[AdamSmith]

I plead the Fifth!

...of whatever you may have lying around.

[RA1]

I have wine, fifths and quarts + 1.75 of various. You are welcome to any and many of any of them.

Best regards,

RA1