A local prosecutor also asked Ballou to look into a case Farak had tested as far back as 2005. "The gravity of the present case cannot be overstated," Kaczmarek wrote in her memo recommending a prison sentence of five to seven years. On top of that, it was also ensured that no analyst would ever work without supervision. Yet Dookhan's brazen crimes went undetected for ages. "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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. The crucial fact of her longstanding and frequent drug use also never made it into Farak's trial, much less to defendants appealing convictions predicated on her tainted analyses. | She was also under the influence when she took the stand during her trial. Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. She had unrestricted access to the evidence room. As he leafed through three boxes of evidence, he found the substance abuse worksheets and diaries. The defense bar had raised concerns that prosecutors might be "perceived as having a stake" in such an investigation. 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. The special hearing officer found Kaczmarek "displayed no remorse" and was "not candid" during the disciplinary proceedings. 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. The information showed that Farak sought therapy for drug addiction and that her misconduct had been ongoing for years. 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 couldn't be sure which cases these were, Dookhan told investigators. 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.". Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. ", The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. One colleague called her the "super woman of the lab. Penate was convicted in December 2013 and sentenced to serve five to seven years. Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to stealing samples of drugs from an Amherst drug lab. Penate alleged Kaczmarek's actions violated his "Brady rights," which require prosecutors to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. Emma Camp "It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents," Ryan wrote to the attorney general's office. They pulled her aside as she walked back to the courthouse from her car, where she had smoked "a fair amount of crack" during her lunch break. 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. ", Prosecutors nationwide pretty uniformly backed this argument, which the Supreme Court rejected in a 54 opinion. But whether anyone investigated her conduct during a brief stint working at the state's Boston drug lab is at . State prosecutors hadnt provided this evidence to other district attorneys offices contending with the Farak fallout, either. She was sentenced to 18 months in jail plus five years of probation. "These drugswere tested fairly," Coakley claimed the day after Farak's arrest. How to Fix a Drug Scandal is an American true crime documentary miniseries that was released on Netflix on April 1, 2020. Regarding the cases that she had handled, the Massachusetts courts threw out every case in the Amherst lab during her tenure. Dookhan was now spending less time at her lab bench and more time testifying in court about her results. 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.". Kaczmarek was now juggling two scandals on opposite sides of the state. Powered by. In court, she added that there was "no smoking gun" in the evidence. 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. The number is 888-999-2881. "I remember actually sitting on the stand and looking at it," Farak said of her first time swiping from evidence in a trafficking case, "knowing that I had analyzed the sample and that I had then tampered with it.". 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. She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. After serving just a year of her 18 month sentence, Farak was released from prison in 2015. Several defense attorneys who called for the Velis-Merrigan investigation say the former judges and their state police investigators got it wrong. As federal food benefits decline, Mass. 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. Farak signed She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. 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. It's not as bad as Dookhan, they asserted and implied over and over. Join us. "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. Coakley's office finally launched a criminal investigation in July 2012, more than a year after the infraction was discovered by Dookhan's supervisors. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. He recommended she lose her law license for two years; the Office of Bar Counsel later argued Kaczmarek should be disbarred. Foster protested that portions of the evidentiary file in question might be privileged or not subject to disclosure. Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline. She received the American Institute of Chemists Award in her final year as well as a Crimson and Gray Award from the school a year before, which recognized her dedication, commitment and unselfishness in the enrichment of student life at WPI. A Rolling Stone piece on Farak also indicated that she graduated with high distinction from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Martha Coakley, then attorney general for the state, argued in Melendez-Diaz that a chemist's certificate contains only "neutral, objective facts." Ryan finally viewed the file in the attorney generals offices in October 2014. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Sonja Farak is the subject of Netflix's "How To Fix a Drug Scandal. Sonja Farak was a chemist at a state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 2005 to 2013. The governor didn't appoint the inspector general or anyone else to determine how long Farak was altering samples or running analyses while high. ", But another co-worker was suspicious, particularly since he "never saw Dookhan in front of a microscope.". 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. The responsibility of the mess that she created should also rest upon the shoulders of her workplace that allowed her the opportunity to indulge so freely in drugs in the first place. The twin Massachusetts drug lab scandals are unprecedented in the sheer number of cases thrown out because of forensic misconduct. 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. Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. The medical records stated that she did not have an existing drug problem that was amplified by her access to more substances. Because she did so, Plaintiff served more than five years in a state prison.". The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. Episode 2. Finding that there did not appear to be enough slides in Dookhan's discard pile to match her numbers, the colleague brought his concerns to an outside attorney, who advised he should be careful making "accusations about a young woman's career," he later told state police. "No reasonable individual could have failed to appreciate the unlawfulness of [Kaczmarek's] actions in these circumstances," Robertson wrote in her ruling. Among the papers they seized were handwritten worksheets Farak completed for drug-abuse therapy. Kaczmarek also oversaw the prosecution for the attorney general's office in that case. 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.". Sonja Farak had admitted to stealing and using drugs from the drug lab where she worked as a chemist for around 9 years. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. The story of the intertwining Farak and Penate evidence began in January 2013, when state police arrested Farak and searched her car. A drug chemist . During her trial, her defense lawyer Elaine Pourinski said that Farak wasnt taking drugs to party, but instead to control her depression. 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. 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 . 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. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 Contributed by Shawn Musgrave (Musgrave Investigations) p. 1. And yet, despite explicit requests for this kind of evidence, 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. Relying on an investigation conducted by state police, the judges 1. 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. Thus, only defendants whose evidence she tested in the six-month window before her arrest could challenge their cases. When the Farak scandal erupted, that misconduct came into view. The premise revolves around documentary filmmaker Erin Lee Carr following the effects of crime drug lab chemists Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan and their tampering with evidence and its aftereffects.. Dookhan was accused of forging reports and tampering with samples to . Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. Inwardly though, Sonja Farak was striving. 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. "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. It took another three years for the truth to emerge. motion with Hampden Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Kinder to see the evidence for himself. She started seeing a substance abuse therapist around this time. 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. Privacy Policy | You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. Over time, Farak's drug use turned to cocaine, LSD and, eventually, crack. Introduction. 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. Before her sentencing, Farak failed a drug test while out on bail, according to Mass Live. The lead prosecutor on Farak's case knew about the diaries, as did supervisors at the state attorney general's office. GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting. Both scandals undercut confidence in the criminal justice system and the validity of forensic analysis. shipped nearly 300 pages of previously undisclosed materials to local prosecutors around the state. Farak as a young. As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. "As the gatekeeper to this evidence, she failed to turn over documents, and she adamantly opposed the requests for access. | Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the Amherst crime . 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. 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. In 2019, the chemist was spotted at federal court in Springfield, MA , attending a civil case. 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. Mucha gente que vio el programa se pregunta: dnde est Sonja Farak ahora? Investigators gave that information to Kaczmarek and the state AG's office,according tohearings before thestate board that disciplines attorneys. A judge sentenced Dookhan to three years in prison; she was granted parole in April 2016. She was sentenced in 2014 to 18 months in prison and 5 years of probation. In 2017, a different judge ruled that Foster's actions constituted a "fraud upon the court," calling the letter "deliberately misleading." 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. Judge Kinder ordered her to produce all potentially privileged documents for his review to determine whether they could be disclosed. She was ar-rested for tampering with evidence while abusing narcotics at work. Farak admitted to being on a list of drugs while working between 2004 and her 2013 arrest. A scandal erupts, raising questions for the thousands of defendants in her cases. State prosecutors gave Farak the immunity they had declined to grant two years earlier, then asked when she started analyzing samples while high. | TherapyNotes. During the next four years, she would periodically sober up and then relapse. The Farak documents indicate she used drugs on the very day she certified samples as heroin in Penates case. The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Penate's suit said Kaczmarek withheld evidence that Farak used drugs at the lab for longer than the Massachusetts attorney general's office first claimed, and that he would not have been imprisoned based on tainted evidence. When defense lawyers asked to see evidence for themselves, state prosecutors smeared them as pursuing a "fishing expedition.". The next month, Ryan asked again. 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. With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. Instead, Kaczmarek proceeded as if the substance abuse was a recent development. 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. Farak was released from prison in 2015 and has kept a low profile since. On the surface, their crimes dont seem as injurious and they dont seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others. 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.". Who is Sonja Farak? Coakley did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. A few months before her arrest, Farak's counselor recommended in-patient rehab. Accessibility | At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. He emailed them to Kaczmareksubject: "FARAK Admissions." Her access to evidence was not restricted, and she continued testifying in court. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. Since the takeover, the budget for all forensic labs across the state has been increased, by around twenty-five per cent. "It was Defendant who had the responsibility within the AGO [attorney general's office] to see that the Farak investigation materials were disseminated to the DAOs [district attorneys' offices]," Robertson wrote, adding there is no evidence anyone from the attorney general's office sent the potentially exculpatory evidence to those offices.". From 2004 to 2013, Farak took advantage of . Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? The lone dissenting justice called the decision "too little and too late" and argued that the severity of the scandal required tossing all the cases. Both have since left the attorney general's office for other government positions. Release year: 2020. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the lab. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. Between Farak and Dookhanwho's also featured in How to Fix a Drug Scandal38,000 wrongfully convicted cases have been dismissed, according to the Washington Post. Who is Sonja Farak, the former state drug lab chemist featured in the show? 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. How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Scott Allen. "Because on almost a daily basis Farak abused narcoticsthere is no assurance that she was able to perform chemical analysis correctly," the judge found. 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. 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. Follow us so you don't miss a thing! "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.". This is merely a fishing expedition, Foster wrote in It was. Reporting for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Ryan then filed a Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015. She was also testifying in court while high. February 2013 email, to which he attached the worksheets. Below is an outline of her charges. 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. 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. It didnt matter whether or not she was the one who did the testing or some other chemist. Democratic Gov. While Dookhan had tampered with evidence and indulged in dry-labbing, Farak stole from her workplace. This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the story of the Massachusetts Attorney General's office apparently turning a blind eye on those wrongfully convicted because of Farak's mistakes. Her job consisted of testing drugs that have. At some point, the attorney general's office stopped chasing leads entirely. In a 61 ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court in 2017, the defense bar, led by public defenders and the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), won the dismissal of almost every conviction based on Dookhan's analysismore than 36,000 cases in all. The newest true crime series from Netflix, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, was released on April 1, 2020.
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