Despite clear indications that Farak used a variety of narcoticsher worksheets mentioned phentermine, and that vial of powdered oxycodone-acetaminophen had been found at her benchKaczmarek also proceeded as if crack cocaine were Farak's sole drug. 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." A hearing on their motions is scheduled next month. 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! Both have since left the attorney general's office for other government positions. If there's ever any uncertainty over "whether exculpatory information should be disclosed," the Supreme Judicial Court later wrote, "the prosecutor must file a motion for a protective order and must present the information for a judge to review.". This immediately provoked questions about the thousands of cases in which her findings had contributed to the imprisonment of an individual. This not only led to people getting a reprieve from prison but also filing their own lawsuits against the injustice they had to suffer. 2. 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. Penate argued the court should follow those findings. One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. But she worried they might be privileged as health information. 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. Sonja Farak, who worked as a chemist at the Amherst drug lab since 2004, was arrested in January 2013 after one of her co-workers noticed samples were missing from evidence. She grew up in Portsmouth with her sister Amy. 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. According to a Rolling Stone piece on Farak, she struggled with depression from an early age, one that hasnt responded to medication. They wrote that Farak attempted suicide in high school and was also hospitalized while in college. 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. Farak also had an apparent obsession for her therapists husband, as she was reported to have a folder that shed put together about him, documenting her obsession. 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. Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. His report deemed Dookhan the "sole bad actor" at the lab, a finding that remains disputed in some circles. He was floored when he found the worksheets. Sonja Farak | MA Drug Lab Scandals - GitHub Pages 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. The disgraced chemist was sentenced to less than two years behind bars in 2014, following her guilty pleas for stealing cocaine from the lab. memo to Judge Kinder the next week, Foster said she reviewed the file, and said every document in it had already been disclosed. 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. It didnt matter whether or not she was the one who did the testing or some other chemist. There is no allegation of misconduct against the local prosecutors who presented the case against Penate in Hampden County Superior Court. Here's Where Sonja Farak Is Now, After 'How to Fix a Drug Scandal' One of the reasons for the decrepit state and standard of the Amherst lab was the lack of funds. A. Patrick said "the most important take-home" was that "no individual's due process rights were compromised.". It included information about the type of drugs she tampered with. After graduating from Portsmouth High School, Farak attended the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she got a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry in 2000. 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. 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. Having barely investigated her, prosecutors indicted Farak only for the samples in her possession the day she was caught. But in a Meanwhile, other top prosecutors, including Coakley, largely escaped criticism for their collective failure to hand over evidence that they were bound by constitutional mandate to share with defendants. In the eight and a half years she worked at the Hinton State Laboratory in Boston, her supervisors apparently never noticed she certified samples as narcotics without actually testing them, a type of fraud called "dry-labbing." She was ar-rested for tampering with evidence while abusing narcotics at work. As the state's top court put it, the criminal investigation into Farak was "cursory at best.". How to write better therapy progress notes: 10 examples Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? "If she were suffering from back injurymaybe she took some oxys?" The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. Farak wasn't the first Massachusetts chemist to tamper with drug evidence. In Sonja Farak drug lab scandal, Mass - The Washington Post Due to the conviction, prosecutors were forced to dismiss more than . The Hinton drug lab, operated by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, appears to have been run largely on the honor system. Farak started at Amherst lab in Aug 2004 p. 32. Fue arrestada el 19 de enero de 2013. 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. Listen Live: Classic and Contemporary Celtic, Listen Live: Cape, Coast and Islands NPR Station, Boston nonprofit Street2Ivy is producing this generation's entrepreneurs. Shortly into her role at Amherst, Farak decided to try liquid methamphetamine to ease her personal struggles. At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. Release year: 2020. ", But another co-worker was suspicious, particularly since he "never saw Dookhan in front of a microscope.". He also Because of all that, it's no surprise that Farak was sent to prison in Massachusetts. Four months after Ryan found the worksheets, Judge Kinder In a separate opinion in October 2018, the Supreme Judicial Court also ordered the state to return most court fines and probation fees to people whose cases were dismissed; one estimate puts that price tag at $10 million. NORTHAMPTON Sonja J. Farak told a nurse at the Western Massachusetts But why were a small handful of prosecutors allowed total control over evidence about one of the worst criminal justice failures in recent memory? Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline. Netflix's How to Fix a Drug Scandal: What Happened To Sonja Farak But a crucial issue was not before the court. The story of the intertwining Farak and Penate evidence began in January 2013, when state police arrested Farak and searched her car. Each employee had a unique swipe card, but Farak simply used a physical key to get in after hours and on weekends. 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.". She's no longer in prison, as Farak has served her sentence. | She had never quashed a subpoena before, but supervisors told her to fend off motions about Farak. Farak. At some point, the attorney general's office stopped chasing leads entirely. According to the notes, Farak thought it gave her energy, helped her to get things done and not procrastinate, feel more positive., Her partner Nikki Lee testified before a grand jury that she herself had tried cocaine, that she had observed Farak using cocaine in 2000, and that she had marijuana in her house when police officers arrived to search the premises as part of their investigation of Farak., In Faraks testimony during a grand jury investigation, she said that she became a recreational drug user during graduate school and used cocaine, marihuana, and ecstasy. She also said she used heroin one time and was nervous and sick and hated every minute of it [and had] no desire to use [it] again., Farak met and settled down with Nikki Lee in her 20s. A local prosecutor also asked Ballou to look into a case Farak had tested as far back as 2005. Sonja Farak: 35,000 criminal cases were dismissed because this - MEAWW Prosecutors have an obligation to give the defense exculpatory evidence including anything that could weaken evidence against defendants. The place was closed as soon as Faraks crimes came to light. The cocaine, found in an unsealed, completed drug-testing kit, tested negativemeaning Farak had seemingly replaced the formerly "positive" drugs with falsified substances. A final decision is still pending and must be approved by the state Supreme Judicial Court. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015. She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. memo, Kaczmarek told her supervisors that "Farak's admissions on her 'emotional worksheets' recovered from her car detail her struggle with substance abuse. Why Won't Maryland Sell Me a Goddamn Beer? (Conveniently, they also found a Patriots schedule from 2011 in the car.). "It is critical that all parties have unquestioned faith in that process from the beginning so that they will have full confidence in the conclusions drawn at the end," Coakley said. Instead, she submitted an intentionally vague letter to the judge claiming defense attorneys already had everything. But she proceeded on the hunch that Farak only became addicted in the months before her arrest, and her colleagues stonewalled people who were skeptical of that timeline. Investigators found that Sonja Farak tested drug samples and testified in court while under the influence of methamphetamines, ketamine, cocaine, LSD and other drugs between 2005 and 2013. Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. Penate is seeking a new trial, contending the conviction should be reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct and evidence tainted by Farak. Officials recognized the worksheets for what they were: near-indisputable confessions. But unlike with Dookhan, there were no independent investigations of Farak or the Amherst lab. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. The information showed that Farak sought therapy for drug addiction and that her misconduct had been ongoing for years. Thank you! "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. 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. Who is Sonja Farak? At the time of Penates trial, the state Attorney Generals Office contended Faraks misdeeds dated back only as far as 2012. This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the. Her ar-rest led to the dismissal of thousands of drug cases in Massachusetts. Farak was a former lab chemist at a lab in Amherst, Massachusetts and was convicted of stealing and using drugs from the lab where she worked. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. Investigators either missed or declined opportunities to dig very deep. "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. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. TherapyNotes. Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. another filing. A drug chemist . Penate was convicted in December 2013 and sentenced to serve five to seven years. compelled release of additional drug treatment records, which indicated Farak used a variety of drugs that she stole from the lab for years. Farak's reports were central to thousands of cases, and the fact that she ran analyses while high and regularly dipped into "urge-ful" samples casts doubt on thousands of convictions. 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. Two Massachusetts drug lab technicians Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan were caught tainting evidence in separate drug labs in different but equally shocking ways. Farak worked under the influence of drugs for nine years - from 2004 to 2013 - before she was caught. Dookhan's output remained implausibly high even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (2009) that defendants were entitled to cross-examine forensic chemists about their analysis. 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. In 2019, the chemist was spotted at federal court in Springfield, MA , attending a civil case. Because she did so, Plaintiff served more than five years in a state prison.". According to a newspaper article from 1992, she was the first female in Rhode Island to be on a high school football team. Reporting for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. As How to Fix a Drug Scandal explores, Farak had long struggled with her mental . Farak was getting high off the confiscated drugs police sent her way before replacing the evidence with fake drugs. Farak received a sentence of 18 months in jail and 5 years of probation. Since her release, she has kept a low profile and managed to stay out of the public . Report shows more than 24k wrongful convictions dismissed in drug lab (Netflix) A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. In a letter filed with the Supreme Court, Julianne Nassif, a lab supervisor, wrote that Hinton had "appropriate quality control" measures. Kaczmarek was now juggling two scandals on opposite sides of the state. Investigators gave that information to Kaczmarek and the state AG's office,according tohearings before thestate board that disciplines attorneys. The newest true crime series from Netflix, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, was released on April 1, 2020. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the Amherst lab in 2004. It was an astoundingly light touch for the second state chemist arrested in six months. Who is Sonja Farak, the former state drug lab chemist featured in the show? Deval Patrick's office didn't learn about the protocol breach until December 2011. Where Is Sonja Farak From Netflix's 'Drug Scandal' Doc Now? In 2017, a different judge ruled that Foster's actions constituted a "fraud upon the court," calling the letter "deliberately misleading." High Massachusetts Lab Chemist Causes Thousands Of Drug Cases To Be Dismissed. Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. 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.". 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. The Netflix docuseries ends by acknowledging that Farak received an 18-month sentence, and that defense attorney Luke Ryan was able . With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. A Powerful EHR to Manage a Thriving Practice. Even though Farak found a job after graduation and was settled down with her partner, she continued to struggle with depression and felt like a stranger in her body. 3.3.2023 5:30 PM, Joe Lancaster The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Kaczmarek quoted the worksheets in a memo to her supervisor, Verner, and others, summarizing that they revealed Farak's "struggle with substance abuse." "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. Episode 1. They were all rendered unacceptable. On the surface, their crimes dont seem as injurious and they dont seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others. | The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the Amherst crime .
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