Timeline of events in disgraced Mass. chemist case

BOSTON (AP) - A timeline of events surrounding Annie Dookhan, the chemist at the center of a scandal at the Massachusetts state drug lab, based on police interviews with chemists at the Hinton state lab who worked with Dookhan, and with Dookhan herself:

- Sometime in 2007-2008: A lab supervisor first notices Dookhan is testing an unusually high number of drug samples. He notifies her immediate supervisor.

- 2009: The supervisor doesn't get the feedback he is looking for, so he goes to another supervisor and says he's concerned that Dookhan is testing so many samples that she might not be doing all the tests she should be. He says he never saw her in front of a microscope.

- 2010: Due to concerns, chemists audit Dookhan's work. Her paperwork is reviewed but no samples are retested. No wrongdoing is found.

- Dec. 2010: Another chemist reports his concerns about Dookhan's unusually high output to two supervisors. He's told to take his concerns to a higher-level supervisor.

- Feb. 2011: The chemist says he noticed on a monthly report that Dookhan claimed to have tested 500 samples. The average chemist could do 50 to 150 samples a month.

- March 2011: A chemist notices Dookhan put her initials on lab sheets as the second chemist for samples she had not seen or set up.

- June 10, 2011 - Dookhan falsifies a report with another chemist's initials. She tells police, "There was no one available - no one has the time - I wanted to get the work done."

- June 14, 2011 - Dookhan takes 90 specific samples and doesn't sign them out properly.

- June 21, 2011 - Lab supervisors meet with Dookhan to ask what happened with the samples in question. Dookhan doesn't respond and says she doesn't know what happened. One supervisor says the three feel the incident does not affect her casework, but he realizes that in hindsight they should have notified the Quincy Police Department and the Norfolk District Attorney's office, whose samples were affected. He feels Dookhan had a mental breakdown.

- March 2012 - Dookhan resigns from the lab pending an investigation.

- Aug. 28, 2012 - Police interview Dookhan at her home and she admits wrongdoing.

- Aug. 30, 2012 - The lab is shut down.

Cox Media Group