"According to court documents, in 2018, Gordon allegedly delivered two envelopes containing 61 orange strips of an unidentified substance to an inmate at the Plymouth County House of Correction. The exchange occurred the day following two jail telephone calls with a first inmate, who instructed Gordon to transmit the "paperwork" to a second inmate and then pass it on to the first inmate. Court documents say officers confiscated the envelopes because, based on training and experience, they suspected the orange strips were Suboxone."
"Officers transported the strips to the crime lab, where forensic analyst Kimberly Dunlap tested one. Dunlap concluded that the strip contained a mixture of buprenorphine and naloxone, or Suboxone. Court documents say that Dunlap recorded the procedures in her written remarks. A supervisor, Carrie LaBelle, reviewed the case file but was not involved in the testing. The prosecution intended to call Dunlap to testify that the 61 strips were Suboxone. However, before jury selection, the prosecution notified the trial judge that LaBelle would act as a substitute chemist to identify the substance, because Dunlap was no longer with the lab."
A Massachusetts justice overturned a lawyer's conviction and granted a new trial, citing constitutional concerns about a substitute expert witness. In 2018, the lawyer allegedly delivered two envelopes containing 61 orange strips to an inmate at the Plymouth County House of Correction after coordinated jail calls. Officers suspected the strips were Suboxone and sent them to the crime lab. Forensic analyst Kimberly Dunlap tested one strip and recorded procedures; supervisor Carrie LaBelle reviewed the file but did not perform testing. The prosecution substituted LaBelle as the chemist before trial, relying on another analyst's test. A grand jury had indicted the defendant on multiple Suboxone-related charges.
Read at Boston.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]