Commonwealth v. Scott (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-033-14)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC‑11465 COMMONWEALTH vs. RAKIM D. SCOTT. Suffolk. October 10, 2013. ‑ March 5, 2014. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Controlled Substances. Constitutional Law, Plea, Conduct of government agents. Due Process of Law, Plea, Disclosure of evidence, Presumption. Practice, Criminal, Admission to sufficient facts to warrant finding, Plea, New trial, Conduct of government agents, Disclosure of evidence, Presumptions and burden of proof. Evidence, Guilty plea, Certificate of drug analysis, Exculpatory, Disclosure of evidence, Presumptions and burden of proof. Complaint received and sworn to in the Central Division of the Boston Municipal Court Department on April 5, 2011. A motion to vacate a plea of guilty or admission to sufficient facts was heard by Michael J. Coyne, J. The Supreme Judicial Court granted an application for direct appellate review. Vincent J. DeMore, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. Amy M. Belger for the defendant. Emma A. Andersson & Ezekiel R. Edwards, of New York; Emily A. Cardy & Eric Brandt, Committee for Public Counsel Services; & Matthew R. Segal & Elizabeth A. Lunt, for Committee for Public Counsel Services & others, amici curiae, submitted a brief. SPINA, J. In this case, the defendant’s motion to withdraw his admission to sufficient facts to warrant a finding of guilty under Mass. R. Crim. P. 30 (b), as appearing in 435 Mass. 1501 (2001), was granted by a judge in the Boston Municipal Court.[1] The Commonwealth appealed, and we granted the Commonwealth’s application for direct appellate review.[2] This case is one of four in this posture before us as a result of the ongoing investigation into the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, and specifically, the conduct of Annie Dookhan, an individual who was employed as a chemist in the forensic drug laboratory (Hinton drug lab or lab) from 2003 until 2012. See Commonwealth v. Torres, post (2014); Commonwealth v. Bjork, post (2014); Commonwealth v. Davila, post (2014). Among other things, that investigation led to the indictment of Dookhan on multiple counts of evidence tampering and obstruction of justice as well as on at least one count of perjury and one count of falsely claiming to hold a graduate degree, all relating to her handling and testing of samples […]