BOSTON, Oct. 12, 2012—Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley today designated three experienced prosecutors to handle post-conviction motions on cases affected by the ongoing crisis at a Department of Public Health laboratory that once tested drugs seized in criminal investigations.

Conley assigned Assistant District Attorneys Paul Treseler, Nicole Cordeiro, and Vincent DeMore to the nascent DPH crisis task force, instructing them to assist in identifying Suffolk County cases affected by the revelation that a former chemist may have mishandled drug evidence, work with the Trial Court and defense counsel to bring those cases into court, and make appropriate recommendations as to which convictions should be preserved and which are unsupported by the evidence as it now stands.

Treseler has been a Suffolk prosecutor since 1995. He has served in the DA’s Appellate Division, in the Boston Municipal Court, in the Gang Unit, and on the Senior Trial Team. As co-chief of the Major Felony Bureau, Treseler has prosecuted homicides and acted as the point person for motor vehicle fatalities, reviewing each case for potential indictment on motor vehicle homicide charges.

Cordeiro’s prior assignment was in the DA’s Major Felony Bureau, where she prosecuted violent crime, repeat drunk driving offenses, and serious narcotics cases – including that of JEFFREY BANKS, wrongly convicted of a 2011 indictment charging him with drug distribution after the rogue chemist at the heart of the lab crisis falsified evidence and certified an inert substance as cocaine. Earlier this month, Cordeiro affirmatively asked a Suffolk Superior Court judge to vacate that conviction and release Banks from his sentence; that request was granted and Banks is now serving an unrelated state prison sentence in Middlesex County.

DeMore came to the office in 2007 and served as a line prosecutor in the Boston Municipal Court. He went on to serve as the deputy supervisor of the DA’s staff in that courthouse before his promotion to the Appellate Division in 2011.

“Together, Paul, Nicole, and Vince have more than 27 years of experience as trial prosecutors, appellate lawyers, and administrators,” Conley said. “They have the respect of their colleagues, the defense bar, and judges across the state. They’re well-versed in post-conviction matters at the district and superior court level and in our higher courts. They have the experience, the knowledge, and the integrity to make the right call on a tough decision, and I’m grateful for their service on this very important team.”

Conley’s office received a list of 22,677 drug samples believed to have been handled by a former chemist during her nine years at the DPH lab.  Prosecutors are working to identify those samples by case and defendant, with a priority placed on those individuals currently held on bail or incarcerated after conviction on charges stemming from drugs that chemist tested.

“We won’t tolerate anyone being deprived of his or her liberty without the evidence to support it,” Conley said. “But at the same time, we won’t ignore weapons charges, assaults, and the myriad other offenses that so often go hand in hand with drug crimes. One thing is clear: there’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. We’re going case by case, defendant by defendant, and we need a solid team like this one to streamline that process.”

Treseler, Cordeiro, and DeMore are expected to appear in Suffolk Superior Court on Oct. 15 for a set of specialized sessions dealing only with DPH-related cases. Prosecutors hope to answer on 180 separate cases during those sessions, which will run through Oct. 26 before Judge Christine McEvoy. This week, they also met with members of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, which represents indigent defendants, to prepare a similar list of cases to be heard this morning in the Boston Municipal Court.

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