BOSTON, Sept. 24, 2012—A Suffolk Superior Court judge today stayed a convicted career criminal’s 10-year sentence for gun, ammunition, and drug trafficking convictions and admitted him to high bail in light of a crisis at a former Department of Public Health drug testing laboratory.

Over the objections of Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office, Judge Christine Roach stayed further execution of the sentences imposed earlier this year on DAVID HUFFMAN (D.O.B. 2/27/57). Roach set his bail at $75,000 and ordered him to wear a GPS monitoring device if he posts that amount.

On Aug. 1, Roach sentenced Huffman to five concurrent terms of 7 to 10 years when he pleaded guilty to trafficking in cocaine, trafficking in heroin, unlawful possession of a firearm as an armed career criminal, unlawful possession of ammunition, and unlawful possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

At the time of his conviction on those charges, Huffman had a lengthy record dating back to 1972 with convictions for witness intimidation, larceny of a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a dangerous weapon, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, possession of a Class A controlled substance with intent to distribute, breaking and entering at night with intent to commit a felony, assault and battery on a public employee, robbery, burglary, and other offenses.

“This defendant isn’t a low-level or non-violent drug offender,” Conley said. “Those offenders don’t go to prison in Massachusetts. The defendants who stand to benefit most from the DPH lab crisis are violent offenders, career criminals, gun offenders, or major narcotics suppliers – and he’s all four. We’re extremely concerned about this defendant and many others like him hitting the streets in the weeks and months to come.”
Huffman’s lead charges stem from the recovery of about 300 grams of cocaine, about 90 grams of heroin, and a .357 caliber revolver with ammunition recovered by Boston Police executing a search warrant at his Hansford Place residence on Nov. 8, 2010.

As with most drug evidence seized in Boston arrests, the cocaine and heroin were sent to a DPH drug testing facility in Jamaica Plain. That lab was recently closed amid an ongoing investigation into the alleged mishandling of evidence by one chemist. That chemist had contact with the evidence in Huffman’s case.

The seized gun and ammunition, however, were sent to Boston Police ballisticians, who determined that they were operable.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph Janezic, deputy chief of Conley’s Gang Unit, assented to a stay of execution on the drug sentences at today’s hearing because they were implicated by the drug lab investigation, but argued strongly against staying the gun sentence.

“This defendant had two separate sets of convictions based on two separate types of contraband tested at two separate facilities,” Conley said. “His gun convictions and the evidence that supported them were unaffected by the DPH lab crisis.”

Suffolk prosecutors have affirmatively moved to have several drug defendants released from custody when the evidence in their cases came into question. Among them were two men who were about to plead guilty until prosecutors requested that they be released on their own recognizance until such time as the strength of the evidence could be assessed. In other cases, however – such as when there existed additional charges unrelated to the drugs, such as guns or crimes of violence – Suffolk prosecutors have fought against the defendants’ release.

Huffman was ordered to return to court on Oct. 17. He is represented by attorney Bernard Grossberg.

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