BOSTON (AP) — One at a time, the prison inmates sat down at a wooden table, linked by videoconference to a Boston courtroom, where their attorneys and prosecutors explained the role a disgraced chemist played in their criminal cases. The fallout from a scandal at a state drug lab played out in court Monday, as Judge Christine McEvoy began hearing what is expected to be nearly 200 legal challenges in Suffolk Superior Court drug cases. The chemist, Annie Dookhan, 34, of Franklin, has been charged with obstruction of justice and accused of skirting protocols and faking tests results at a former Department of Public Health lab. The Boston lab was closed by state police in August after Dookhan told them she had faked test results, forged paperwork and sometimes mixed samples. During the morning session, McEvoy granted defense motions to place sentences on hold and set bail for about 10 inmates now serving time at the state prison in Norfolk. Anthony Benedetti, chief counsel for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, which represents indigent defendants, said he objects to that description, saying many are low-level nonviolent offenders and others might be innocent.   Original post on sfgate.com →   Comments on reddit.com →