There's a new twist in the case of Annie Dookhan, the former chemist at a Massachusetts drug lab who has admitting to mishandling and outright falsifying thousands of tests. The Boston Globe reports that Dookhan carried on a long-running--and highly unauthorized--correspondence with George Papachristos, a prosecutor in Norfolk County (Brookline, Needham, Braintree) whose cases she often handled.
The tone in the dozens of e-mails between the two was sometimes quite familiar, according to the person who has read them. Dookhan opened up about her life, confiding in one e-mail that she was unhappy in her marriage, though it is unclear from a printout of the e-mails whether she sent it. On another occasion, Papachristos reminded her that their relationship was strictly “professional” in response to something Dookhan wrote.
The correspondence, which dates back to 2009, was unusual enough that State Police investigating drug lab misconduct recently interviewed Papachristos about their relationship.
Why does this matter? Lab protocol only allows supervisors, not rank-and-file chemists,m to communicate with prosecutors in order to avoid the appearance of funny business. While Dookhan frequently violated that protocol with several other prosecutors, her correspondence with Papachristos raised eyebrows because she always seemed to be asking for cases from Norfolk County. In June 2011, she was caught taking evidence from Norfolk drug cases without authorization--an apparent favor to Norfolk prosecutors.
Norfolk DA Michael Morrissey has a few emails between Dookhan and Papachristos, but hasn't been willing to release them, citing the investigation. He's also refused to review other emails that investigators have in their possession, again citing the investigation. The latter move is hard to understand. Wouldn't he want to know if one of his assistants is aiding and abetting Dookhan's behavior?
The emails between Dookhan and Papachristos got extremely personal, to the point that Dookhan's husband tried to confront Papachristos. Nonetheless, investigators don't believe there was anything romantic between them. But what has come out is enough that Matthew Segal of the Massachusetts ACLU thinks all cases in which Dookhan communicated directly with Papachristos--or any other prosecutor--should be thrown out.
Dookhan stressed that she worked alone and that no prosecutors urged her to break the rules.
Nonetheless, Segal said Dookhan’s direct contact with prosecutors, without following proper protocol, should be grounds for dismissal of cases, suggesting the prosecutors knew that she would do what they wanted — give them the evidence they needed for drug convictions — without even asking.
“Would they have called if they had any doubt about what her answer would be? She reportedly was the only person at the lab who would take these calls” from prosecutors and police, said Segal in an interview. “You’ve seen the TV shows. Everyone else says, ‘I can’t get you that result right away, there’s a procedure.’ She alone says, ‘I can get you these results right away.’ The reason was reportedly by making [the results] up.”
If I were Papachristos, I'd have a lawyer on speed dial. After all, even if there was nothing romantic involved, he's got a lot of explaining to do.