A habitual offender with 42 prior convictions was convicted once again this week on drug charges stemming from a 2009 drug arrest in the South End.
Julio Medina, 54, was convincted of dealing heroin in a school zone to police officers in 2009. The drug evidence in the case had been tested by state drug lab chemist Annie Dookhan, who has been accused of mishandling evidence.
Medina has 42 convictions including 11 for drug offenses, four for violent crimes, and three for weapon-related crimes, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley. He faces another trial April 22 for enhanced penalties as a habitual offender.
“Given all the facts, anyone can see that the evidence in a drug case is never limited to merely the drugs,” Conley said. “There’s a sequence of events before and after the arrest. There’s a pattern of evidence surrounding the drugs, their packaging, and their distribution. The jury made the right call and they made it in record time – even without knowing this defendant’s long and egregious history.”
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Police first linked up with Medina in July of 2009, when they used a phone number traced to him to set up a fake drug deal near a convenience store on the corner of Appleton and Berkeley streets.
A short time later, Medina rode up on a bicycle and asked, “How many do you want?” the DA’s office said. According to the case, the officer explained that he wanted five bags for $ 100. Medina spat five plastic bags from his mouth into his hand and gave them to the officer. The officer in turn provided Medina with $ 100 in pre-recorded buy money and asked if he could call Medina in the future. Medina said that he could.
Additional DCU officers moved in and arrested Medina after the sale. Medina removed an additional bag of heroin from his mouth and tried to discard it, but the officers recovered it. They also recovered the plainclothes officer’s buy money, additional cash, and Medina’s cell phone showing an incoming call from the plainclothes officer.
Boston Police submitted the drugs to the Department of Public Health drug-testing facility in August 2009. Chemist Annie Dookhan certified the substance in all six bags as heroin.
Medina defaulted at his 2010 trial date and was subsequently apprehended in late 2011. In June 2012, after learning of an earlier breach of protocol by Dookhan at the lab, prosecutors asked that the evidence in Medina’s case be re-tested. Once again, but this time by a different chemist, it was certified as heroin.
“If the evidence doesn’t support a charge, we won’t pursue it,” Conley said. “We’ve made that decision in some of the so-called Dookhan cases, just as we have in many other types of cases. But when the evidence is solid, and when the defendant, like this one, is an incorrigible repeat offender, we’re going to pursue a conviction and prison time.”
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