Lynn man out on bail faces new drug charges

SALEM – A Lynn man out on bail on a drug case has to come up with another $20,000 in cash in order to get out of the Middleton Jail after police allegedly caught him with cocaine in his car.Duane S. Collins, 51, of 154 Lynnway #207, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday morning to a new charge of trafficking over 28 grams of cocaine before Judge Garry V. Inge.The judge agreed to set the $20,000 cash bail jointly proposed by Assistant District Attorney Michael Patten and defense lawyer Russell C. Sobelman and continued the case to May 12 for a hearing and possible plea.In the meantime, Collins remains held in lieu of bail at the Middleton Jail.This new charge stems from his arrest on Feb. 1 in Lynn when a state police trooper said he observed Collins run a red light and then passed cars on the Lynnway.Police, suspecting he might be intoxicated, followed him and pulled him over in front of his condominium on the Lynnway. The trooper thought Collins might have alcohol in the car after seeing a cooler in the car. He opened the container and instead of alcohol found more than an ounce, over 28 grams, of cocaine inside the cooler. Collins was arrested at the scene.Collins was out free on $20,000 cash bail on a different case stemming from 2008 drug conviction in which he was sentenced 5 to 71/2 years in state prison for trafficking nearly two ounces of cocaine in Peabody.He recently was granted a new trial after a U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a different case in 2009 that prosecutors must call the chemists who analyzed the drugs to testify at trial. In his case no chemist was called, so he was granted a new trial.Collins was suppose to plead guilty to that case, but instead ended up being arrested on his new charge. The plea agreement had involved a three-year prison term, which would have meant he would serve only a few more months in prison. It would had given him credit for the time he had already served, but now that agreement is off the table, but it looks like a new agreement might have been reached involving both cases.