D’Amelio trial set for Tuesday
D’Amelio trial set for Tuesday
Former MIT police officer Joseph D’Amelio is going to trial next Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court for trafficking prescription painkillers.
D’Amelio was arrested in uniform in March 2009 when Boston Police caught him dealing OxyContin and Roxicodone pills — both of which contain oxycodone — in East Boston. At his arraignment, D’Amelio was charged with trafficking more than 100 grams of oxycodone, a Class A substance — an offense which carries a sentence between 10 and 20 years in state prison. He was released later that month on a bail of $75,000, reduced from $500,000, and placed on house arrest with electronic monitoring.
D’Amelio’s trial has been scheduled twice previously — Sept. 28, 2010 and Aug. 30, 2011, but both were cancelled. Since the 2010 date, there have been three conferences for status review, the latest on Sept. 21 of this year.
Jake Wark, press secretary at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, said the long pre-trial timeframe is not unusual. In Massachusetts, trial schedules are handled according to the complexity of the case as deemed by the judge of the arraignment. Because high level narcotics were involved in this case, both the prosecutors and defendants were given ample time to prepare the best case possible, he said.
—Adisa Kruayatidee