"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. 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. The information showed that Farak sought therapy for drug addiction and that her misconduct had been ongoing for years. Coakley assigned the case against Dookhan to Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek and her supervisor, John Verner. The former judges and the state police officers who helped them conducted a thorough review, said Emalie Gainey, spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey. Or she just lied about her results altogether: In one of the more ludicrous cases, she testified under oath that a chunk of cashew was crack cocaine. She grew up in Portsmouth with her sister Amy. On top of that, it was also ensured that no analyst would ever work without supervision. 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. She couldn't be sure which cases these were, Dookhan told investigators. Farak worked under the influence of drugs for nine years - from 2004 to 2013 - before she was caught. There is no allegation of misconduct against the local prosecutors who presented the case against Penate in Hampden County Superior Court. 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.". Kaczmarek is one of three former prosecutors whose role in the prosecution of Farak later became the focus of several lawsuits and disciplinary hearings. Patrick appointed the state inspector general to look into it. One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. "A forensic analyst responding to a request from a law enforcement official may feel pressureor have an incentiveto alter the evidence in a manner favorable to the prosecution.". She even made her own crack in the lab. High Massachusetts Lab Chemist Causes Thousands Of Drug Cases To Be Dismissed. Poetically, that landmark case originated from the Hinton lab, although Dookhan didn't conduct the analysis in question. Approximately one year later, she pled guilty to tampering with evidence, unlawful possession, and stealing narcotics. ", The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. Here are those forms with the admissions of drug use I was talking about," a state police sergeant wrote to Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek, who led Faraks prosecution, in a Penate was convicted in December 2013 and sentenced to serve five to seven years. With the Dookhan case so fresh, reporters immediately labeled Farak "the second chemist. Sonja Farak is in the grip of a rubbed-raw depression that hasn't responded to medication. Instead, Coakley's office served as gatekeeper to evidence that could have untangled the scandal and freed thousands of people from prison and jail years earlier, or at least wiped their improper convictions off the books. Below is an outline of her charges. In court, she added that there was "no smoking gun" in the evidence. We couldn't do it without you. Sonja Farak (Netflix) An ex-lab chemist Sonja Farak's negligence and misdeeds shocked US when she was arrested in 2013 for stealing and using drugs from the lab where she worked. But she insisted the drugs didn't compromise her worka belief that one judge would aptly declare "belies logic.". Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Who is Sonja Farak, the former state drug lab chemist featured in the show? He also In four 50-minute episodes, Netflix's latest shocker tells the story of Sonia Farak, a chemist who worked at a crime lab in Amherst, Massachusetts. In a March 2013 "Whether law enforcement officials overlooked these papers or intentionally suppressed them is a question for another day.". 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. In the aftermath, the court felt it necessary to make clear that "no prosecutorhas the authority to decline to disclose exculpatory information.". Join us. A few months before her arrest, Farak's counselor recommended in-patient rehab. She also starting dipping into police-submitted samples, a "whole other level of morality," as Farak called it during a fall 2015 special grand jury session. Foster said that Kaczmarek told her all relevant evidence had been turned over and that her supervisor told her to write the letter, though both denied these claims. Penate alleged Kaczmarek's actions violated his "Brady rights," which require prosecutors to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. | Months after Farak pleaded guilty in January 2014, Ryan filed a The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2015by which time the current state attorney general, Maura Healey, had been electedthat it was "imperative" for the government to "thoroughly investigate the timing and scope of Farak's misconduct." "No reasonable individual could have failed to appreciate the unlawfulness of [Kaczmarek's] actions in these circumstances," Robertson wrote in her ruling. 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.. Over time, Farak's drug use turned to cocaine, LSD and, eventually, crack. Without even interviewing Foster, they determined there was "no evidence" of obstruction of justice by her, by Kaczmarek, or by any state prosecutor. mentioned a New England Patriots game on Saturday, Dec. 24 which corresponded with a game date in 2011. Instead, she submitted an intentionally vague letter to the judge claiming defense attorneys already had everything. 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. State police took these worksheets from Farak's car in January 2013, the same day they arrested her for tampering with evidence and for cocaine possession. Another three days later, state police conducted a full search of Farak's workstation, finding a vial of powder that tested positive for oxycodone, plus 11.7 grams of cocaine in a desk drawer. "I dont know how the Velis report reached the conclusion it did after reviewing the underlying email documents, said Randy Gioia, deputy chief counsel at the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the states public defender office. "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. Having barely investigated her, prosecutors indicted Farak only for the samples in her possession the day she was caught. 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. Judge Kinder ordered her to produce all potentially privileged documents for his review to determine whether they could be disclosed. On the surface, their crimes dont seem as injurious and they dont seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others. Earlier that day, a chemist at the Amherst drug lab had tracked two samples that were missing from the evidence locker to Sonja Farak's bench. It's been like this forever, or at least since girlhood. Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. She was sentenced in 2014 to 18 months in prison and 5 years of probation. ", Prosecutors maintained that Faraks rogue behavior spanned just a few months. Sonja Farak. "Because on almost a daily basis Farak abused narcoticsthere is no assurance that she was able to perform chemical analysis correctly," the judge found. Shawn Musgrave is a reporter who was until recently based in Boston. Farak admitted in testimony that she began using drugs almost as soon as she started working at the Massachusetts State Crime Lab in Amherst. B. ut when Penates lawyer tried to obtain the documents not certain what was in them before his clients 2013 trial, he was rebuffed by state prosecutors who said the papers were irrelevant according to emails included in investigative reports unsealed earlier this month. Most important, they found seven worksheets from Farak's substance abuse therapy. When grand jury materials were eventually released to defense attorneys, then, they did not mention that these documents existed. In January of 2013, Sonja Farak, a chemist at a state crime lab in Massachusetts, was arrested for tampering with evidence related to criminal drug cases (Small, 2020).A year later, Farak pleaded guilty to tampering with drug evidence, theft of a controlled substance, and drug possession .She received a sentence of 18 months with 5 years of probation and was released in 2015. A second unsealed report into allegations of wrongdoing by police and prosecutors who handled the Farak evidence, overseen by retired state judges Peter Velis and Thomas Merrigan, drew less attention. Exhausted from the ongoing scandal in Boston, state officials were desperate for damage control. 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 . Among other items, Kaczmarek Though. Sonja Farak is at the center of Netflix's new true crime docuseries, How To Fix a Drug Scandal. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. Because of all that, it's no surprise that Farak was sent to prison in Massachusetts. A judge sentenced Dookhan to three years in prison; she was granted parole in April 2016. El 6 de enero de 2014, Farak se declar culpable de los cargos en su contra. How to Fix A Drug Scandal takes a one-woman issue in a crumbling police drug lab and follows the way it blew up an entire legal system. The court also dismissed all meth cases processed at the lab since Farak started in 2004. motion with Hampden Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Kinder to see the evidence for himself. Democratic Gov. Defense lawyers doubled down on challenges to every case she might have taintednot just her own, which district attorneys ultimately agreed to dismiss, but also her co-workers', based on Farak's admission that she stole from other chemists' samples. A federal judge has rejected claims from an embattled former state prosecutor that she is protected from liability in the fallout over a Massachusetts drug lab scandal. Verner, who testified that he didn't "micromanage" Kaczmarek, escaped criticism. The court decided to uphold a ruling dismissing charges against the defendant, a juvenile at the time of the alleged offense identified only as Washington W. The justices didnt name his prosecutor, David Omiunu, who was identified by The Eye from other court records. How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Scott Allen. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. But in a | Even as they filed numerous motions for information about how long Farak had been using drugs, the defense attorneys had no idea these worksheets existed. And yet, due to their actions, they did injure people and they did inflict a lot of pain, not just on a couple of people, but on thousands. Joseph . Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 Contributed by Shawn Musgrave (Musgrave Investigations) p. 1. . The results of that intake interview and notes from several of Farak's therapists all detailing Farak's drug use going back years were obtained by defense attorneys on behalf of . "These drugswere tested fairly," Coakley claimed the day after Farak's arrest. She had been accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress in addition to the conspiracy to violate [Penates] civil rights.. Faraks therapist, Anna Kogan, wrote in her notes that Farak was worried about Nikki finding out about her addiction as well as the possible legal issues if she were ever caught. NORTHAMPTON Sonja J. Farak told a nurse at the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center in Chicopee in December 2013 that she used methamphetamines and other stimulants "whenever she could get her hands on them." And since her job as a chemist was to test drug samples at a state drug lab in Amherst, that opportunity came daily. Sonja Farak had admitted to stealing and using drugs from the drug lab where she worked as a chemist for around 9 years. He was floored when he found the worksheets. Follow us so you don't miss a thing! The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. 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. As How to Fix a Drug Scandal explores, Farak had long struggled with her mental . In fall 2013, a Springfield, Massachusetts, judge convened hearings with the explicit aim of establishing "the timing and scope" of Farak's "alleged criminal conduct.". Thus, only defendants whose evidence she tested in the six-month window before her arrest could challenge their cases. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. 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. Talking Politics: Should a new government agency protect the coastline from climate change? Both have since left the attorney general's office for other government positions. "We shouldn't be in the position of having to be saying, 'Don't close your eyes to the duration and scope of misconduct that may affect a whole lot of cases,'" the exasperated Massachusetts chief justice told prosecutors during oral arguments. "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.". When Farak was arrested,former Attorney General Martha Coakley told the public investigators believed Farak tampered with drugs at the lab for only a few months. The prosecutors have been tied to the drug lab scandal involving disgraced former state chemist Sonja Farak, who admitted to stealing and using drugs from an Amherst state lab. 1. READ NEXT: Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal Story: 5 Fast Facts, Sonja Farak: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, Please review our privacy policy here: https://heavy.com/privacy-policy/, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. | ", Prosecutors nationwide pretty uniformly backed this argument, which the Supreme Court rejected in a 54 opinion. answered that the state considered the evidence irrelevant to any case other than Faraks..