BOSTON, Feb. 26, 2016—The Massachusetts Appeals Court today affirmed a lower court’s ruling that a repeat drug dealer’s convictions for possessing a loaded .45 caliber semiautomatic Glock handgun were unaffected by the reversal of drug convictions compromised by a rogue former chemist at a Department of Public Health laboratory, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

The eight-page decision by Justices Judd Carhartt, Cynthia Cohen, and Jeffrey Kinder rejected the appeal by LARRY BLUE (D.O.B. 7/14/67) of Dorchester on his 2010 conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm as a third offense. Blue is currently serving a 10-year state prison term on that conviction.

At his trial, Blue was additionally convicted of trafficking in cocaine in a school zone for possessing 165 individually-packaged bags of cocaine at his Lawrence Avenue residence, plus two scales and more than $1,500 in cash that were evidence of drug distribution. Boston Police recovered the drugs, gun, and ammunition during a raid prompted by members of the Grove Hall community, who complained to police and prosecutors about the effect that Blue’s drug distribution was having on their neighborhood.

The drug trafficking conviction, for which he was sentenced to three years in state prison, was reversed because Annie Dookhan, the disgraced former chemist at the Hinton Laboratory drug testing facility, certified them as illicit and falsely testified that she had a master’s degree. Blue moved for a new trial on the remaining firearm-related convictions on the grounds that they were tainted by Dookhan’s misconduct, even though she had no involvement with their recovery or certification as operable.

The Suffolk Superior Court judge who denied that motion wrote that “there is absolutely no connection between the analysis of the drugs at the Hinton Laboratory or Dookhan’s trial testimony, and the firearm and ammunition that were seized by the police. Neither of these items were sent to, processed or tested at the Hinton Lab …. Except for the prosecutor’s rhetorical relish that the defendant possessed a firearm ‘to protect his drug business,’ there is no basis to speculate that impeachment of the evidence regarding the drugs would have impacted the jury’s consideration of the gun charges.”

The Appeals Court affirmed that finding.

“We discern no error in the motion judge’s assessment that the evidence supporting the gun charges was independent of, and therefore not tainted by, Dookhan’s misconduct,” the panel wrote.

“Annie Dookhan’s misconduct may have compromised this defendant’s conviction for drug trafficking, but the recovery, testing, and certification of the loaded firearm by Boston Police was beyond reproach,” Conley said. “The Grove Hall residents who brought this defendant to our attention can breathe a little easier knowing this conviction and prison sentence remain in place.”

Assistant District Attorney Vincent DeMore argued the case on appeal. Former Assistant District Attorney Joseph Janezic prosecuted the case at trial.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.