BOSTON, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- A convicted drug dealer was released from a Massachusetts prison Thursday because of tainted evidence, and many more are expected to be freed, officials said.
A judge vacated David Danielli's conviction Wednesday, The Boston Globe reported. Superior Court Judge Paul Troy found that the determination by a chemist at the Department of Health drug lab in Boston that pills in Danielli's possession were oxycodone was not reliable.
The chemist, Annie Dookhan, worked at the lab for nine years, handing 60,000 drug samples in 34,000 cases. State Police investigators say she altered results to show the presence of drugs, calibrated equipment incorrectly and changed the weights of chemicals.
Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey supported the defense motion to vacate Danielli's conviction. Danielli had more than two years of his sentence left when he was freed.
"The Danielli matter is not the end of the fallout from the problems at the DPH [Department of Public Health] drug lab," Morrissey's office said in a statement Wednesday.
State Police took over operation of the lab in July.
