"No reasonablejury could conclude that this evidence is not favorable.". She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. Her access to evidence was not restricted, and she continued testifying in court. Sgt. She grew up in Portsmouth with her sister Amy. In fall 2012, just five months before her arrest, Annie Dookhan confessed to faking analyses and altering samples in the Boston testing facility where she worked. 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. It's been like this forever, or at least since girlhood. Sonja Farak was a chemist for a state crime lab in Massachusetts. 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. A judge sentenced Dookhan to three years in prison; she was granted parole in April 2016. 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. 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 judge ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys to coordinate on identifying undisclosed emails related to documents seized from the disgraced state crime lab chemist. Faraks wife had her own mental health problems, and according to Rolling Stone, Farak would have conflict with her wife every night at home. 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. While Dookhan had tampered with evidence and indulged in dry-labbing, Farak stole from her workplace. Gainey added that Healey is pleased with their conclusion that prosecutors and the state police acted appropriately. Kaczmarek had obtained the evidence at issue while she was prosecuting Farak on state charges of tampering with evidence and drug 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. Defense attorneys had. . Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015. As extensively detailed in How to Fix a Drug Scandal, Farak was arrested on January 19, 2013. On the surface, their crimes dont seem as injurious and they dont seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others. Foster and another assistant attorney general assented to that motion. Emma Camp In court, she added that there was "no smoking gun" in the evidence. The scandal led. Who is Sonja Farak, the former state drug lab chemist featured in the show? She said, It was about coping; it certainly wasnt about having fun; I dont think shes had fun in quite a while.. The Amherst Bulletin reported that her medical records indicated that she only became addicted to drugs once she started working at the lab, in 2004. Her reporting focuses on mental health, criminal justice and education. There is nothing to indicate that the allegations against Farak date back to the time she tested the drugs in Penates case. "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. She's no longer in prison, as Farak has served her sentence. Penate argued the court should follow those findings. Netflix released a new docu-series called "How to Fix a Drug Scandal." 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. 1. One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. Nassif considered it a lapse in judgment, but not a disqualifying one; Nassif's boss didn't think it necessary to alert the prosecutors whose cases relied on the samples, much less the defendants. A hearing on their motions is scheduled next month. "It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents, Ryan After her arrest, she received support from her parents, who showed up to her court appearances, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported. This not only led to people getting a reprieve from prison but also filing their own lawsuits against the injustice they had to suffer. The special hearing officer found Kaczmarek "displayed no remorse" and was "not candid" during the disciplinary proceedings. Over time, Farak's drug use turned to cocaine, LSD and, eventually, crack. Months after Farak pleaded guilty in January 2014, Ryan filed a The twin Massachusetts drug lab scandals are unprecedented in the sheer number of cases thrown out because of forensic misconduct. Talking Politics: Should a new government agency protect the coastline from climate change? The Board of Bar Overseers (BBO) is reviewing the actions of three prosecutors in the investigation of the scandal to determine whether any of them deliberately withheld potentially exculpatory evidence. 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. 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. 2. | She was sentenced to 18 months in jail plus five years of probation. 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. Coakley assigned the case against Dookhan to Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek and her supervisor, John Verner. Velis said he stood by the findings. 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. With the Dookhan case so fresh, reporters immediately labeled Farak "the second chemist. 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. 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. 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. From the March 2019 issue, "Tried to resist using @ work, but ended up failing," the forensic chemist scribbled on a diary worksheet she kept as part of her substance abuse therapy. Farak signed a certification of drug samples in Penate's case on Dec. 22, 2011. Two Massachusetts drug-testing laboratory technicians are caught tampering with and falsifying drug evidence, and prosecutors are reluctant to disclose the full extent of their criminal behavior. Because she did so, Plaintiff served more than five years in a state prison.". Judge Kinder ordered her to produce all potentially privileged documents for his review to determine whether they could be disclosed. 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. But Ryan, who represented Penate, suspected it was more extensive. Lost in the high drama of determining which individual prosecutors hid evidence was a more basic question: In scandals like these, why are decisions about evidence left to prosecutors at all? Initially, she had represented herself in answer to the complaints lodged against her, but later, she turned to Susan Sachs, who represented her since, not just on the Penate lawsuit, but also on any other case that emerged as the result of her actions in Amherst. In the series, it's explained that Farak loved the energy the meth gave her. She was also under the influence when she took the stand during her trial. Massachusetts prosecutors withheld evidence of corrupt state narcotics testing for months from a defendant facing drug charges, and didnt release it until after his conviction, according to newly surfaced documents and emails. This immediately provoked questions about the thousands of cases in which her findings had contributed to the imprisonment of an individual. Prosecutors have an obligation to give the defense exculpatory evidence including anything that could weaken evidence against defendants. To multiple courts' amazement, her incessant drug use never caught the attention of her co-workers. His email was one of more than 800 released with the Velis-Merrigan report. Below is an outline of her charges. "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. Exhausted from the ongoing scandal in Boston, state officials were desperate for damage control. Who is Sonja Farak? This article originally appeared in print under the headline "The Chemists and the Cover-Up". But whether anyone investigated her conduct during a brief stint working at the state's Boston drug lab is at . Relying on an investigation conducted by state police, the judges Sonja Farak was a chemist at a state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 2005 to 2013. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. 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. Local prosecutors also remained in the dark. As . Investigators either missed or declined opportunities to dig very deep. As federal food benefits decline, Mass. Due to the conviction, prosecutors were forced to dismiss more than . A drug chemist . 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. 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. Four months after Ryan found the worksheets, Judge Kinder 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. At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. "First, of course, are the defendants, who when charged in the criminal justice system have the right to expect that they will be given due process and there will be fair and accurate information used in any prosecution against them." In "How to Fix a Drug Scandal," a new four-part Netflix docuseries, documentary filmmaker Erin Lee Carr presents the stories of Massachusetts drug lab chemists Annie Dookhan and Sonja Farak, and . 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. Farak. The surveillance of the chemists as well as the standards and the confiscated drugs has also been increased considerably. Among the papers they seized were handwritten worksheets Farak completed for drug-abuse therapy. And then the bigger investigation was going to be someone else.". Coakley did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. Deval Patrick's office didn't learn about the protocol breach until December 2011. compelled release of additional drug treatment records, which indicated Farak used a variety of drugs that she stole from the lab for years. ", In 2004, her first full year at the lab, Dookhan reported analyzing approximately 700 samples per month. In 2012, she began taking from co-workers' samples, forging intake forms and editing the lab database to cover her tracks. Fue arrestada el 19 de enero de 2013. She was also testifying in court while high. Patrick appointed the state inspector general to look into it. motion with Hampden Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Kinder to see the evidence for himself. He recommended she lose her law license for two years; the Office of Bar Counsel later argued Kaczmarek should be disbarred. Farak admitted to being on a list of drugs while working between 2004 and her 2013 arrest. "As the gatekeeper to this evidence, she failed to turn over documents, and she adamantly opposed the requests for access. But a crucial issue was not before the court. 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. The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. According to an Attorney General Offices report, Farak attended Temple University in Philadelphia for graduate school, which is where she became a recreational drug user. "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. 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. The attorney general's representative at these hearings was Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster, a recent hire. Out of "an abundance of caution," Kaczmarek didn't present them to the grand jury that was convened to determine whether to indict Farak. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 Contributed by Shawn Musgrave (Musgrave Investigations) p. 1. But absent evidence of aggravating misconduct by prosecutors or cops, the majority ruled, Dookhan's tampering alone didn't justify a blanket dismissal of every case she had touched. According to the documents released Tuesday, investigators found that Sonja Farak tested drug samples and testified in court while under the influence of methamphetamines, ketamine, cocaine, LSD . State prosecutors gave Farak the immunity they had declined to grant two years earlier, then asked when she started analyzing samples while high. Yet state prosecutors withheld Farak's handwritten notes about her drug use, theft, and evidence tampering from defense attorneys and a judge for more than a year. Still, the state was acquiring evidence. As How to Fix a Drug Scandal explores, Farak had long struggled with her mental . On top of that, it was also ensured that no analyst would ever work without supervision. At the time of Penates trial, the state Attorney Generals Office contended Faraks misdeeds dated back only as far as 2012. 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. Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. Farak as a young. 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. Two detectives found Farak at a courthouse waiting to testify on an unrelated matter. food banks expect a surge, As streaming services boom, cable TV continues its decline. She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. "Whether law enforcement officials overlooked these papers or intentionally suppressed them is a question for another day.". It was. 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. Given the account that Farak was a law-abiding citizen, it is questioned as to how an But in a Former chemist Annie Dookhan was convicted in 2013 on charges of improperly testing drug evidence at a drug lab in Boston. On another worksheet chronicling her struggle not to use, she described 12 of the next 13 samples assigned to her for testing as "urge-ful.". another filing. Kaczmarek quoted the worksheets in a memo to her supervisor, Verner, and others, summarizing that they revealed Farak's "struggle with substance abuse." The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. Sonja Farak, a state forensic chemist in western Massachusetts, was minutes away from testifying in a drug case in early 2013 when attorneys learned she was about to be arrested on charges of. Verner, who testified that he didn't "micromanage" Kaczmarek, escaped criticism. And when defense attorneys tried to do it themselves, Coakley's office blocked their efforts. She later called this dismissive exchange a "plea to God.". As the state's top court put it, the criminal investigation into Farak was "cursory at best.". The governor also tapped a local attorney, David Meier, to count how many individuals' cases might be tainted. (Conveniently, they also found a Patriots schedule from 2011 in the car.). 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 . A status hearing on Penate's suit, which was filed in 2017, is scheduled for July. Two drug lab chemists' shocking crimes cripple a state's judicial system and blur the lines of justice for lawyers, officials and thousands of inmates. Shown results suggesting otherwise, she copped to contaminating samples "a few times" during the previous "two to three years.". Name. Introduction. Chemist Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to "tampering with evidence" back in 2014 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Magistrate Judge Robertson denied a request in Penate's lawsuit that Kaczmarek be prohibited from contesting the special hearing officer's findings. 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. Although the year she wrote the notes wasnt listed on the worksheet, in the six years prior to her arrest, 2011 is the only year in which Dec. 22 fell on a Thursday. 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.
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