Special Court Sessions Begin in Mass. Drug Lab Scandal

Special court sessions are being held in Massachusetts to deal with the fall out from the state drug lab scandal.   WAMC”s Paul Tuthill reports.

   At the first of the sessions Monday in Boston, a state judge set bail for ten people convicted of drug crimes after prosecutors agreed to put their sentences on hold.  The DA in the greater Boston area has estimated that between 300 and 500 people could eventually be put back on the streets because drug evidence that led to their convictions was tested by former lab chemist Annie Dookhan.  She’s been charged with obstruction of justice  for deliberately faking test results in the now closed lab where she worked for almost nine years.  Prosecutors in western Massachusetts say they have not come across any cases where drug evidence was sent for testing at the now closed Boston lab.