Accused drug dealer to be released after lab shutdown

QUINCY, Mass. (WHDH) -- A judge ordered an accused drug dealer to be released from jail on Thursday. This comes as the state investigates a chemist who is accused of deliberately mishandling drug samples.

David Danieli faced serious drug charges in Quincy. He pleaded guilty, but now his attorney said his plea was infected with an unconstitutional breach of ethics on behalf of the lab.

Wednesday’s decision was the first drug case in Norfolk County to be directly affected by the problems uncovered at the state drug lab in Jamaica Plain. Authorities said a chemist tainted more than 50,000 samples.

“This was one of the cases where there was potentially mixing of drugs,” said attorney John Martin.

The prosecutor said initially his office was informed there may have been a breach of protocol with the Department of Public Health, but nothing like what has been revealed.

“We know at this point that the letters that were sent were grossly inaccurate,” said prosecutor George Papachristos.

“Everyone who’s been convicted of a crime related to drugs in Norfolk, Suffolk and possibly other counties in the last five or six years is possibly the victim of a very substantial miscarriage of justice and on the other hand a lot of dangerous people might get out of jail,” said Martin.

Even though Danieli is being released, the case is not going away. He was supposed to serve a 2.5-year sentence. His attorney said he expects the case to be prosecuted; however he also says there are going to be significant developments that he could not elaborate on.