Thanks largely to the prosecutors' deception, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in October 2018 was forced to dismiss thousands of cases Farak may never have even touched, including every single conviction based on evidence processed at the Amherst lab from 2009 to the day of Farak's arrest in 2013. Looking back, it seems that Massachusetts law enforcement officials, reeling from the Dookhan case, simply felt they couldn't weather another full-fledged forensics scandal. Because the attorney general had "portrayed Farak as a dedicated public servant who was apprehended immediately after crossing the line, there was also no reasonto waste resources engaging in any additional introspection.". a certification of drug samples in Penates case on Dec. 22, 2011. Her ar-rest led to the dismissal of thousands of drug cases in Massachusetts. Farak was getting high off the confiscated drugs police sent her way before replacing the evidence with fake drugs. Sonja Farak had admitted to stealing and using drugs from the drug lab where she worked as a chemist for around 9 years. The Netflix docuseries ends by acknowledging that Farak received an 18-month sentence, and that defense attorney Luke Ryan was able . She was also under the influence when she took the stand during her trial. ", Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Inwardly though, Sonja Farak was striving. Robertson rejected Kaczmarek's claims she should not be held responsible for the turning over of exculpatory evidence because she was not part of the "prosecution team" in Penate's case. Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to stealing samples of drugs from an Amherst drug lab. Accessibility | High Massachusetts Lab Chemist Causes Thousands Of Drug Cases To Be Dismissed. TherapyNotes is a complete practice management system with everything you need to manage patient records, schedule appointments, meet with patients remotely, create rich documentation, and bill insurance, right at your fingertips. She continued to experience suicidal thoughts, but instead of going through with those thoughts, she started taking the drugs that she would be testing at work. It's been like this forever, or at least since girlhood. Since the takeover, the budget for all forensic labs across the state has been increased, by around twenty-five per cent. She was arrested in 2013 when the supervisor at the Amherst lab was made aware that two samples were missing. "It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents, Ryan A local prosecutor also asked Ballou to look into a case Farak had tested as far back as 2005. In the aftermath of Farak's arrest, it's been argued that because she was under the influence, all of the cases she tested could be considered to have been wrongfully convicted. But the Farak scandal is in many ways worse, since the chemist's crimes were compounded by drug abuse on the job and prosecutorial misconduct that the state's top court called "the deceptive withholding of exculpatory evidence by members of the Attorney General's office.". Kaczmarek was now juggling two scandals on opposite sides of the state. The next month, Ryan asked again. During the next four years, she would periodically sober up and then relapse. Martha Coakley, then attorney general for the state, argued in Melendez-Diaz that a chemist's certificate contains only "neutral, objective facts." On top of that, it was also ensured that no analyst would ever work without supervision. Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. She first worked at the Hinton State Laboratory in Jamaica Plain for a year as a bacteriologist working on HIV tests before she transferred to the Amherst Lab for drug analysis. With the Dookhan case so fresh, reporters immediately labeled Farak "the second chemist. Meier put the number at 40,323 defendants, though some have called that an overestimate. The governor didn't appoint the inspector general or anyone else to determine how long Farak was altering samples or running analyses while high. Faraks notes also She played as the starting guard for Portsmouth High Schools freshman team. Instead, Kaczmarek provided copies to Farak's own attorney and asked that all evidence from Farak's car, including the worksheets, be kept away from prying defense attorneys representing the thousands of people convicted of drug crimes based on Farak's work. The lead prosecutor on Farak's case knew about the diaries, as did supervisors at the state attorney general's office. Who is Sonja Farak, the former state drug lab chemist featured in the show? She stopped the interview when asked about crack pipes found at her bench, and state police towed her car back to barracks while they waited on a warrant. Several defense attorneys who called for the Velis-Merrigan investigation say the former judges and their state police investigators got it wrong. As Solotaroff recounts in detail, Massachusetts attorney Luke Ryan represented two people who were accused of drug charges that Farak had analyzed . She couldn't be sure which cases these were, Dookhan told investigators. The state's top court took an even harsher view, ruling in October 2018 that the attorney general's office as an institution was responsible for the prosecutorial misconduct of its former employees. You can check your records electronically by following this link: https://icori.chs.state.ma.us. If Farak found a substance was a true drug, the person it was confiscated from could be convicted of a substance-related crime. chemist, Sonja Farak, had been battling drug addiction and had tampered with samples she was assigned to test around the time she tested the samples in Penate's case. In November 2013, Dookhan pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, and perjury. She consumed meth, crack cocaine, amphetamines, and LSD at the bench where she tested samples, in a lab bathroom, and even at courthouses where she was testifying. Velis said he stood by the findings. The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. After serving for 13 months, she was released on parole in 2015. But whether anyone investigated her conduct during a brief stint working at the state's Boston drug lab is at . Sonja Farak was a chemist at a state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 2005 to 2013. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. Even the master's degree on her rsum was fabricated. So, in a way, it is not from her that the queue of the blame should begin; it should be from the lab and the authorities themselves. As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. With the lab's ample drug supply, she was able to sneak the drug each day from a jug that resided in the shared workspace. But Ryan, who represented Penate, suspected it was more extensive. She was sentenced in 2014 to 18 months in prison and 5 years of probation. He also Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. She was struggling to suppress mental health issues, depression in particular, and she tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. Between 2005 and 2013, Sonja Farak was performing laboratory tests at a state drug lab in Amherst while under the influence of narcotics. When she got married, it turned out that her wife, too, suffered from her own demons, and their collective anguish made Sonja desperate for a reprieve from this life. Defense attorneys had. She started smoking crack cocaine in 2011 and was soon using it 10 to 12 times a day. Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. Penate alleged Kaczmarek's actions violated his "Brady rights," which require prosecutors to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. Emma Camp Farak wasn't the first Massachusetts chemist to tamper with drug evidence. She was ar-rested for tampering with evidence while abusing narcotics at work. Penate's lawsuit, which seeks $5.7 million in damages, is believed to be one of the last remaining suits tied to the scandals; the statute of limitations to file such suits has expired. "Dookhan's consistently high testing volumes should have been a clear indication that a more thorough analysis and review of her work was needed," an internal review found. When she got married, it turned out that her wife, too, suffered from her own demons, and their collective anguish made Sonja desperate for a reprieve from this life. In December 2011, after police in Springfield, Mass., had arrested Renaldo Penate for allegedly selling heroin, the drugs from that case were tested at a state drug lab by technician Sonja Farak. It had no surveillance cameras, laughable security on evidence safes, and "laissez faire" management, which the state inspector general determined was the "most glaring factor that led to the Dookhan crisis. In court, she added that there was "no smoking gun" in the evidence. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the Amherst crime . 1. "As the gatekeeper to this evidence, she failed to turn over documents, and she adamantly opposed the requests for access. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the lab. Her medical records included notes from Faraks therapist in Amherst, Anna Kogan. Our posture is to not delve into the twists and turns of the investigation or the report and to let it stand on its own, Merrigan said. "It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents," Ryan wrote to the attorney general's office. If they'd kept digging, defendants might still have learned the crucial facts. The Farak documents indicate she used drugs on the very day she certified samples as heroin in Penates case. It was. Because she did so, Plaintiff served more than five years in a state prison.". Verner's "marching orders," he later testified, were to prosecute Farak with "what was in front of us, the car, things that were readily apparent. "That was one of the lines I had thought I would never cross: I wouldn't tamper with evidence, I wouldn't smoke crack, and then I wouldn't touch other people's work," Farak said. Sonja Farak stole, ingested or manufactured drugs almost every day for eight years while working as a chemist at a state lab in Amherst, Massachusetts. 1. She started working shortly after for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in July 2003 until July 2012, and from July 2012 until January 2013 for the Massachusetts State Police when the lab fell under their jurisdiction. Relying on an investigation conducted by state police, the judges Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the Amherst lab in 2004. One reason that didn't happen, he says: "the determination Coakley and her team made the morning after Farak's arrest that her misconduct did not affect the due process rights of any Farak defendants." Two Massachusetts drug lab technicians Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan were caught tainting evidence in separate drug labs in different but equally shocking ways. This not only led to people getting a reprieve from prison but also filing their own lawsuits against the injustice they had to suffer. Instead, she submitted an intentionally vague letter to the judge claiming defense attorneys already had everything. Deval Patrick's office didn't learn about the protocol breach until December 2011. shipped nearly 300 pages of previously undisclosed materials to local prosecutors around the state. "Thousands of defendants were kept in the dark for far too long about the government misconduct in their cases," the ACLU and the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state's public defense agency, wrote in a motion. Another worksheet had the month and weekdays for December 2011, which police easily could have determined by cross-referencing holidays or looking up a New England Patriots game mentioned in one entry. The report The staff in the new lab was also doubled, and the number of trainees was also increased. | Penate is seeking a new trial, contending the conviction should be reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct and evidence tainted by Farak. It features the true story of Sonja Farak, a former state drug lab chemist in Massachusetts who was arrested in 2013 for consuming the drugs she was supposed to test and tampering with the evidence to cover up her tracks. Most of the heat for thisincluding formal bar complaintshas fallen on Kaczmarek and another former prosecutor, Kris Foster, who was tasked with responding to subpoenas regarding the Farak evidence. She's no longer in prison, as Farak has served her sentence. Biden Embraces the Fearmongering, Vows To Squash D.C.'s Mild Criminal Justice Reforms, The Flap Over Biden's Comment About 2 Fentanyl Deaths Obscures Prohibition's Role in Causing Them, Conservatives Turn Further Against WarExcept Maybe With Mexico. This very well could have been the end of the investigative trail but for a few stubborn defense lawyers, who appealed the ruling. And so, when she pleaded guilty in January 2014, Farak got what one attorney called "de facto immunity." There were also newspaper articles about other officials caught stealing drugs, including one with a scribbled note, "Thank god I'm not a law enforcement officer." From the April 2023 issue, Billy Binion For years, Sonja Farak was addicted to cocaine, methamphetamine, and amphetamines, the kind of drugs usually bought from street dealers in covert transactions that carry the constant risk of arrest. Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal tells the story of two women whose actions brought to light the negligence of the system that is supposed to deliver justice to everyone. Sonja Farak worked as a chemist for the state of Massachusetts, specializing in identifying illegal substances. In 2012, she began taking from co-workers' samples, forging intake forms and editing the lab database to cover her tracks. It ultimately took a blatant violation to expose Dookhan, and even then her bosses twisted themselves in knots to hold on to their "super woman.". The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. Patrick appointed the state inspector general to look into it. At the time of her arrest, she had resided in 37 Laurel Park in Northampton. Thus, only defendants whose evidence she tested in the six-month window before her arrest could challenge their cases. . After contemplating another suicide, she settled on drugs, and the fact that she had such easy access to it at her workplace made it easier for her to get lost in that world. Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. A year later, in October 2014, prosecutors relented, granting access to the full evidence in Farak's case to attorney Luke Ryan. Soon after, the state police took over the control, and the lab was moved to Springfield, where it remains under the supervision of the state police. Maybe it's not a matter of checklists or reminders that prosecutors have to keep their eyes open for improprieties. Even when she failed a post-arrest drug testprompting the lead investigator to quip to Kaczmarek, "I hope she doesn't have a stash in her house! Even before her arrest, the Department of Public Health had launched an internal inquiry into how such misconduct had gone undetected for such a long time. Please note that if your case has been identified for dismissal, it could take approximately 2-3 months for the relevant court records to be updated. The civil lawsuit was one of the last tied to prosecutors' disputedhandling of the case against disgraced ex-chemist Sonja Farak, who was convicted in 2014 of ingesting drug samples she was supposed to test at the Amherst state drug lab. answered that the state considered the evidence irrelevant to any case other than Faraks.. This past Tuesday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court filed a report saying that more than 24,000 convictions in 16,449 cases have been dismissed as a result of foul play by a former state drug lab chemist. 3.3.2023 5:30 PM, Joe Lancaster Dookhan was now spending less time at her lab bench and more time testifying in court about her results. Two weeks after Ryans discovery, the Attorney Generals Office At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. "I suspect that if another entity was in the mix"perhaps the inspector general or an independent investigator"the Attorney General's Office would have treated the Farak case much more seriously and would have been much more reluctant to hide the ball," Ryan writes in an email. "Annie Dookhan's alleged actions corrupted the integrity of the criminal justice system, and there are many victims as a result of this," Coakley said at a press conference. This was not true, as Nassif's department later conceded. Kaczmarek got a note from Sgt. The place was closed as soon as Faraks crimes came to light. After graduating from Portsmouth High School, Farak attended the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she got a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry in 2000. Gioia called for evidentiary hearings so prosecutors can be asked about what they knew, when they knew it, and what they did with their knowledge., Luke Ryan, Penates trial lawyer, said that the state police officers working on the report failed to obtain an appropriate understanding of the events that transpired before they were assigned to this investigation.". Such strong claims were too hasty at best, since investigators had not yet finished basic searches; three days later, police executed a warrant for a duffel bag they found stuffed behind Farak's desk. 2. Farak signed El 6 de enero de 2014, Farak se declar culpable de los cargos en su contra. The judge ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys to coordinate on identifying undisclosed emails related to documents seized from the disgraced state crime lab chemist. . The governor also tapped a local attorney, David Meier, to count how many individuals' cases might be tainted. Not only did they not turn these documents over, but I wasnt aware that they existed, said Frank Flannery, who was the Hampden County assistant district attorney assigned to appeals following Faraks arrest. On a Friday afternoon in January 2013, a call came in to Coakley's office: "We have another Annie Dookhan out west.". denied Penates motion to dismiss the case, saying there was no evidence that Faraks misconduct extended to his case. Farak saw Kogan in 2009 and 2010, and her therapist wrote: She obtains the drugs from her job at the state drug lab, by taking portions of samples that have come in to be tested., Kogan also wrote that Farak told her she had taken methamphetamines at another lab in an old job, but she didnt get much from it. Kogan wrote that after moving to western [Massachusetts] for her job at the state drug lab, [Farak] tried it again and really liked it. T he day Sonja Farak's world unraveled - the day a crack pipe and sliced evidence bags of cocaine were found at her workstation - started like many others: she attended court. Her wrongdoings were exposed when unsealed cocaine and a crack pipe were found under her desk. | Joseph Ballou, lead investigator for the state police, called them the most important documents from the car. And when defense attorneys tried to do it themselves, Coakley's office blocked their efforts. At some point, the attorney general's office stopped chasing leads entirely. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Farak graduated with awards and distinctions. In 2012, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court foundegregious prosecutorial misconduct after an assistant district attorney withheldevidence a judge had ordered him toproduce for the defense of a teenageraccused of statutory rape. The defense bar had raised concerns that prosecutors might be "perceived as having a stake" in such an investigation. The cocaine, found in an unsealed, completed drug-testing kit, tested negativemeaning Farak had seemingly replaced the formerly "positive" drugs with falsified substances. Carr weaves Farak's story into that of another Massachusetts chemist, Annie Dookhan, who worked across the state at the Hinton drug lab in Boston. Privacy Policy | "The mental health worksheets constituted admissions by the state lab chemist assigned to analyze the samples seized in Plaintiffs case that she was stealing and using lab samples to feed a drug addiction at the time she was testing and certifying the samples in Plaintiffs case, including, in one instance, on the very day that she certified a sample," Robertson's ruling reads. More than 24,000 convictions in 16,449 cases tainted by former state chemist Sonja Farak have been dismissed in a court case brought by the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Committee of Public Counsel Services (CPCS), and law firm Fick & Marx LLP. Both scandals undercut confidence in the criminal justice system and the validity of forensic analysis. Fue arrestada el 19 de enero de 2013. Farak received a sentence of 18 months in jail and 5 years of probation. But why were a small handful of prosecutors allowed total control over evidence about one of the worst criminal justice failures in recent memory? On the surface, their crimes dont seem as injurious and they dont seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others. The information showed that Farak sought therapy for drug addiction and that her misconduct had been ongoing for years. A few months before her arrest, Farak's counselor recommended in-patient rehab. According to her teammates, She was the best center in the league last year, and they [felt] stronger with her in there than with some guys.. Our streamlined software is accessible wherever and whenever you . Investigators gave that information to Kaczmarek and the state AG's office,according tohearings before thestate board that disciplines attorneys. She started doing drugs almost as soon as she took the job at Amherst, but it was after years of negligence on her superiors part that her actions finally came to light. Though. (Belchertown, MA, 01/22/13) Sonja Farak, 35, of Northampton, is arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown on charges that she stole cocaine and heroin while working as a. The Hinton drug lab, operated by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, appears to have been run largely on the honor system. In worksheet notes dated Thursday, Dec. 22, Farak wrote she "tried to resist using @ work, but ended up failing." Although the year she wrote the notes wasn't listed . Sonja Farak in How to Fix a Drug Scandal. And when the tests she did run came back negative, Dookhan added controlled substances to the vials. And both pose the obvious question about how chemists could behave so badly for years without detection. The worksheets, essentially counseling notes, showed that Farak had been using drugs often on the job for much longer than the attorney general's office had claimed. They tend to be more freeform notes about the session and your impressions of the client's statements and demeanour. The former judges and the state police officers who helped them conducted a thorough review, said Emalie Gainey, spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey. Kaczmarek argued the findings are subject to appeal. She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. concluded there was no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct or obstruction of justice in matters related to the Farak case. memo, Kaczmarek told her supervisors that "Farak's admissions on her 'emotional worksheets' recovered from her car detail her struggle with substance abuse. Sonja Farak was a chemist for a state crime lab in Massachusetts. She recovered, made it through college and got a job as a chemist at the Amherst Crime Lab, where she tested confiscated drugs. Farak apparently still tested each caseunlike Annie Dookhan, another Massachusetts chemist who was arrested five months prior to Farak for fabricating test results. Judge Kinder denied Ryans motion. "Because on almost a daily basis Farak abused narcoticsthere is no assurance that she was able to perform chemical analysis correctly," the judge found. This story is an effort to reconstruct what was known about Farak and Dookhan's crimes, and when, based on court filings, diaries, and interviews with the major players. Terms Of Use, (Annie Dookhan (left) and Sonja Farak, Associated Press). When defense lawyers asked to see evidence for themselves, state prosecutors smeared them as pursuing a "fishing expedition.". Scalia may as well have been describing Dookhan. The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Exhausted from the ongoing scandal in Boston, state officials were desperate for damage control. "The need to inform defendants of government misconduct does not disappear when that misconduct was committed by a government lawyer as opposed to a government chemist.". She tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. In a rare move, the judicial office that brings disciplinary cases against lawyers in Massachusetts has accused a prosecutor of professional misconduct, including allegations that she failed to share critical information with defense lawyers and attempted to interfere with defense witnesses. In June 2011, Dookhan secretly took 90 samples out of an evidence locker and then forged a co-worker's initials to check them back in, a clear chain-of-custody breach.
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