BOSTON, March 4, 2013—Six men were held on high bails today at their arraignments on gun and drug charges, including one man with a pending gun charge whose earlier drug charges were dismissed because the assigned chemist is under investigation, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
Dorchester District Court Judge James Coffey imposed $200,000 cash bail for:
- MAYKOR BAEZ (D.O.B. 9/10/92) of Roslindale;
- JONATHAN J. GARCIA (D.O.B. 12/25/90) of Jamaica Plain;
- JOSE JUSTINIANO (D.O.B. 3/13/74) of Dorchester;
- LEIDYS LUGO-MEJIA (D.O.B. 10/19/88) of Dorchester; and
- GILBERT RODRIGUEZ-DIAZ (D.O.B. 4/25/91) of Dorchester.
Coffey imposed $50,000 cash bail for:
- JOSUE Q. SANTANA (D.O.B. 6/12/81) of Dorchester.
Coffey additionally revoked Baez’ bail on an open case charging him with unlawful possession of a firearm. Baez had also been charged with distribution of a Class B substance in connection with that complaint, which arose after Boston Police arrested him with a loaded .22 caliber semiautomatic handgun and a small quantity of a substance believed to be cocaine after a drug transaction on Feb. 10, 2011.
Suffolk prosecutors terminated the drug charges in December of last year in light of criminal charges against Annie Dookhan, the Department of Public Health chemist who certified the substance as cocaine. The gun case is still pending.
“Unfortunately, the defendants who benefit most from the DPH lab crisis are the most serious offenders,” Conley said. “They’re the gun offenders, the violent offenders, and the repeat offenders.”
Baez and his co-defendants were arrested by Boston Police after a call for several people with guns at 580 Blue Hill Ave. just before 12:30 on Saturday morning.
Responding officers spotted Baez, Lugo-Mejia, and Rodriguez-Diaz running from the back of that building into another. The officers followed them, pursued them up the stairs, and even jumped from roof to roof before apprehending them. Additional officers apprehended Justiniano and Santana on the third floor of 580 Blue Hill Ave. and Garcia in an apartment on the second floor.
As a result of their observations during the pursuits and the execution of a search warrant in their aftermath, Boston Police recovered one handgun and four half-kilo bricks of marijuana in the alley on one side of 580 Blue Hill Ave.; a second handgun on the other side of that building, and a third handgun inside the second-floor apartment in which Garcia was arrested.
Also in that apartment, officers seized several more bricks of marijuana; about 184 grams of heroin in four bags; about 225 grams of cocaine in two bags; about 34 grams of crack cocaine in two bags; and evidence of drug distribution that included a scale, baggies, cutting agents, and ledgers.
Baez was represented by attorney Jessica Dembro. His co-defendants are represented by attorneys Robert Zanello, Hung Tran, Fritz Pluviose, Christopher Dolan, and Thomas Silivich. They will return to court on March 29.
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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
