Criminal – Drug lab

Where a defendant moved to withdraw his guilty pleas after misconduct at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute was revealed, the defendant still has a burden of demonstrating a reasonable probability that he would not have pleaded guilty had he known of the misconduct at the drug lab.

“The defendant contends on appeal, as he did during the hearing on his motion to withdraw his guilty pleas, that his motion should have been allowed because Dookhan’s misconduct rendered his pleas involuntary and unintelligent, such misconduct constituted newly discovered evidence that cast real doubt on the justness of his convictions, and the Commonwealth failed to provide him with material exculpatory evidence prior to his admission to sufficient facts. Based on our reasoning in Scott, supra, we conclude that the defendant is entitled to a conclusive presumption that Dookhan’s misconduct happened in his case, that such misconduct was egregious, and that its occurrence was attributable to the Commonwealth. However, in order to prevail on his motion, the defendant still must demonstrate a reasonable probability that had he known of Dookhan’s misconduct at the Hinton drug lab, he would not have pleaded guilty to the charges against him and would have insisted on going to trial. … The judge has made no findings on this matter. Accordingly, we vacate the judge’s denial of the defendant’s motion to withdraw his guilty pleas, and we remand the case for further proceedings and findings in accordance with this opinion and our reasoning in Scott.”

Commonwealth v. Rodriguez (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-035-14) (4 pages) (Rescript) (SJC) Appealed from a decision by Baylor, J., in District Court. Claudia Leis Bolgen, of Bolgen & Bolgen, for the defendant; Vincent J. DeMore for the commonwealth; the following submitted briefs for amici curiae: Keith A. Findley, of Wisconsin, M. Christopher Fabricant and David Loftis, of New York; Howard Schiffman, Katherine L. Schuerman and Michael Sanocki, of the District of Columbia, and David Duncan, of Zalkind, Rodriguez, Lunt & Duncan, for The Innocence Network; Emma A. Andersson and Ezekiel R. Edwards, of New York, Emily A. Cardy, Eric Brandt, Matthew R. Segal & Elizabeth A. Lunt for Committee for Public Counsel Services and others (Docket No. SJC-11462) (March 5, 2014).