BOSTON, March 25, 2015—A repeat drug dealer who greeted a Boston Police officer by name during his weekend arrest appeared in court twice this week on separate cases, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

JOHN McFARLANE (D.O.B. 11/29/63) of Dorchester was arraigned Monday in Roxbury Municipal Court yesterday on charges of distribution of a Class B substance as a subsequent offense – while he was free on bail in one similar case and on probation for another, prosecutors said.

Assistant District Attorney William Doogan IV requested that McFarlane be held in lieu of $25,000 bail and that his bail on an open case charging distribution of a Class A substance – for which he was arraigned in January – be revoked.  Judge David Poole set bail at $5,000 and declined to revoke McFarlane’s open bail.  He did, however, grant a request by probation officers to hold McFarlane without bail on a detainer relative to his 2014 convictions for distribution of a Class B substance, possession with intent to distribute a Class A substance, resisting arrest, and assault and battery.

McFarlane returned to court today for a previously scheduled hearing relative to his January drug case. He has 13 prior convictions for violent crimes – including two armed robberies – and 21 prior convictions for drug distribution offenses.

According to prosecutors, Boston Police officers in an unmarked police vehicle on Saturday afternoon observed McFarlane, whom the officers knew from prior drug arrests, enter a black Saturn that parked directly across the street from officers’ vehicle in the area of Roxbury and Washington streets and conduct what the officers believed to be a drug transaction.  During the course of the transaction, officers observed McFarlane remove his knit cap and then replace it, prosecutors said.  McFarlane then exited the vehicle and walked to a nearby liquor store as the Saturn drove away.

As officers approached McFarlane, he greeted one of the officers by name and during the course of a conversation with officers consented to a search, prosecutors said.  Officers discovered a bag of crack cocaine under McFarlane’s hat and placed him under arrest.

Additional officers stopped the driver of the black Saturn, who produced two baggies of crack cocaine and allegedly admitted that he had just purchased the drugs from a dealer he knew by the initial “J.”

McFarlane was represented by Lauren Redmond.

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