BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts court administrators have set up the first in what is expected to be a long series of special court sessions to deal with the legal fallout from the actions of a state chemist charged with faking drug test results in criminal cases.
Defense lawyers have been told that hearings will be held during the weeks of Oct. 15 and Oct. 22 for drug defendants currently serving sentences in Suffolk County cases in which chemist Annie Dookhan tested drug samples. A judge will hear motions to put sentences on hold and to request bail.
Details of the court sessions were described in an email sent by the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state's public defender agency, to defense lawyers.
Dookhan was charged Friday with obstruction of justice on allegations she altered drug tests and skirted testing procedures. She pleaded not guilty.
