Comments on: 64,000 drug-bust samples in Mass. were processed by a dirty lab tech who tampered with them, altered weight, faked positive tests for illegal substances

By: Daniel Rutter

Daniel Rutter — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 08:44:00 +0000

”Drylabbing” does not mean “getting someone else to do your tests for you”. It means “fabricating data”.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 01:30:00 +0000

I certainly did. That or if she even makes it to trial. -shivers-

By: Marc Mielke

Marc Mielke — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:09:00 +0000

Ms. Dookhan couldn’t possibly live long enough to serve the slammer time that she deserves

I think you might have read that as ‘killed in prison by one of the many she set up’, which was my first reading too. I think the OP really meant that if she’s charged on each count she might be sentenced to multiple times the average human life span.

By: benher

benher — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:08:00 +0000

Ugh. Burn it all, start over time.

By: That_Anonymous_Coward

That_Anonymous_Coward — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:04:00 +0000

Ok I looked closer, and it helped confirm the idea that if Mittens touches it it all goes to shit.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 01:25:00 +0000

Uhhhhm. Pardon me, but you know Mitt Romney? He was gov here not that long ago. A Republican, as were 3 others of the last 5 governors here. As is one of our US senators (for now).

I’m sure you think you sound like you know what you’re talking about, and its great fun to pick on the nerds, but you don’t know what you’re talking about. Even our taxes here in “Taxachusetts” are lower than the national average, despite the healthcare mandate.

So, there.

By: BillStewart2012

BillStewart2012 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 01:03:00 +0000

The Drug War is a profit-making business. If they’re not going to pay for the raw materials and laborers they need, they shouldn’t get to maximize their profits.

By: BillStewart2012

BillStewart2012 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 01:00:00 +0000

Actually, since it’s evidence in a crime against political correctness, you’re not a priest at that point, you’re The Inquisition. (Unless you’re deliberately finding most people not guilty, in which case you’re the Indulgences Department, but that’s seldom the case with widely corrupt cop labs.)

By: ocker3

ocker3 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 00:53:00 +0000

Everyone, state, private, whatever, acts more responsibly if they think someone is watching them, even if noone actually is. If there’s little threat of exposure and punishment, people will try to get away with all kinds of shite. That goes for Everyone!

By: NelC

NelC — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 22:43:00 +0000

You can be mad for both reasons.

By: NelC

NelC — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 22:41:00 +0000

I think danarmak was confused by acerplatanoides’ use of jargon, i.e. ‘drylabbing’, which I guess from context means something like ‘fake labwork’. But I don’t know for sure.

By: B E Pratt

B E Pratt — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:41:00 +0000

I can tell you that it is WAY messed up here in Texas. Anyone out there surprised about that one?

By: B E Pratt

B E Pratt — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:37:00 +0000

danarmak: Was that supposed to be an example of 1) Poe’s Law in action, or 2) WTF????

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:13:00 +0000

What? That makes no sense to me.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:09:00 +0000

I don’t think much of our profession, but, contrasted with respectability, it is comparatively honest. No, Frederic, I shall live and die a Pirate King.

By: danarmak

danarmak — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:55:00 +0000

Also, there’s no excuse using tools someone else built, or using someone else’s compiler on your code.

By: magicdragonfly

magicdragonfly — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:52:00 +0000

Look closer at Massachusetts:
An overwhelmingly veto-proof Democratic majority, put in place by gerrymandered election maps that has resulted in:
*Three consecutive state house speakers indicted, and found guilty of various federal charges. (IMHO, #4 is forthcoming.)
*A state senator convicted of bribery.
*A Boston city councilor convicted of bribery.
*A state sheriff found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot as questions were being raised about inappropriate use of campaign contributions.
And at the moment, a city housing chief is under the microscope for misuse of funds, and it’s looking like the Lieutenant Governor will be ensnared in that mess.
Basically, Massachusetts is a fine example of why it’s important to keep the fox from guarding the hen house.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:51:00 +0000

I wouldn’t want -that- job. No way. Not with those budget cuts.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:23:00 +0000

If so, she could probably earn a nice safe spot in the Witness Protection Program, and start over somewhere else.

If not, I hope she enjoys prison.

By: Mark_Frauenfelder

Mark_Frauenfelder — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:13:00 +0000

I wouldn’t be very surprised if this was standard operating procedure for every state crime lab.

By: fuzzyfuzzyfungus

fuzzyfuzzyfungus — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 16:30:00 +0000

“Section 13E. (a) As used in this section the following word shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meaning:—“Official proceeding”, a proceeding before a court or grand jury, or a proceeding before a state agency or commission, which proceeding is authorized by law and relates to an alleged violation of a criminal statute or the laws and regulations enforced by the state ethics commission, the state secretary, the office of the inspector general, or the office of campaign and political finance, or an alleged violation for which the attorney general may issue a civil investigative demand.
(b) Whoever alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the record, document or object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding, whether or not the proceeding is pending at that time, shall be punished, by (i) a fine of not more than $10,000, or by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 5 years, or in a jail or house of correction for not more than 2 1/2 years, or both, or (ii) if the official proceeding involves a violation of a criminal statute, by a fine of not more than $25,000, or by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 10 years, or in a jail or house of correction for not more than 2 1/2 years, or both.
(c) The record, document, or other object need not be admissible in evidence or free of a claim of privilege.
(d) A prosecution under this section may be brought in the county where the official proceeding was or would have been convened or where the alleged conduct constituting an offense occurred.”

It doesn’t quite have the ‘poetic justice done’ factor going for it; but if I were somebody who had ‘altered, destroyed, mutilated, or concealed an “other object”‘ on a potentially very large number of occasions, this would make me nervous…

By: fuzzyfuzzyfungus

fuzzyfuzzyfungus — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 16:27:00 +0000

I’m surprised that you are that sympathetic toward somebody who is almost certainly responsible for a nontrivial number of man-years of unjust imprisonment; but I’d say that if she isn’t a future poster child for Massachusetts General Law Chapter 268 “Crimes Against Public Justice”, then it is hard to imagine who would be…

Sections 1, 4, 6A, and 13E look particularly juicy, in addition to the possibility of civil or federal civil-rights related proceedings by the individual victims…

By: dethbird

dethbird — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 16:18:00 +0000

great job team

By: Felton / Moderator

Felton / Moderator — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:54:00 +0000

Mistakes were made.

By: Owen Wylde

Owen Wylde — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:52:00 +0000

Everyone who applied for that job unsuccessfully, whilst actually qualified to do it, should demand compensation for potential loss of income.

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:51:00 +0000

Oh, I’m ubber pissed, but I’m not mad that I didn’t get a job because a fraud was hired instead. No, I’m mad because a gross miscarriage of justice has been perpetrated for a decade and thousands of people have been disenfranchised and/or incarcerated with felony convictions when many were completely innocent or should’ve been convicted of misdemeanor possession.

By: angusm

angusm — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:50:00 +0000

Maybe we need a law that says that if you lie to get someone jailed (which would include cops coercing witnesses, fabricating or hiding evidence, etc), you serve the sentence in their place.

Under such a law, Ms. Dookhan might be eligible for up to 64,000 sentences, served consecutively.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:48:00 +0000

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of innocent people in Massachusetts jails. Bug or feature?

By: Mordicai

Mordicai — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:42:00 +0000

Gosh, I wonder what the racial demographics on those unjust incarcerations look like. Just kidding, I’m sure they are SUPER TERRIBLE.

By: fuzzyfuzzyfungus

fuzzyfuzzyfungus — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:38:00 +0000

Certain regrettable, albeit understandable, lapses of judgement may have occurred in the context of patriotic zeal and an, at times, stressful operating environment on the front lines of the war on drugs…