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 story of the intertwining Farak and Penate evidence began in January 2013, when state police arrested Farak and searched her car. 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 attorney general's representative at these hearings was Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster, a recent hire. It took another three years for the truth to emerge. Disgraced drug lab chemist Sonja Farak emerges as her own attorney as defendant in $5.7 million federal lawsuit. 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. TherapyNotes. The medical records stated that she did not have an existing drug problem that was amplified by her access to more substances. February 2013 email, to which he attached the worksheets. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. "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. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Rollins said it covers "a period of time in which either now disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan, or another convicted chemist Sonja Farak ," worked there. Farak was released from prison in 2015 and has kept a low profile since. He didn't buy her quibbling that there's a difference between an explicit lie and obfuscation by grammar. How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Scott Allen. 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. Sonja Farak worked as a chemist for the state of Massachusetts, specializing in identifying illegal substances. On paper, these numbers made Dookhan the most productive chemist at Hinton; the next most productive averaged around 300 samples per month. A scandal erupts, raising questions for the thousands of defendants in her cases. But Ryan, who represented Penate, suspected it was more extensive. 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. Farak was arrested the next day, and the attorney general's office assigned the case to Anne Kaczmarek. Kaczmarek argued before the BBO, and in response to Penate's lawsuit, that she was focused on prosecuting Farak and not defendants, like Penate, whose criminal cases were affected by Farak's misconduct. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 Contributed by Shawn Musgrave (Musgrave Investigations) p. 1. In her initial police interview, given at her dining room table, Dookhan said she "would never falsify" results "because it's someone's life on the line." 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.. From the April 2023 issue, Billy Binion After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. She was sentenced to 18 months in jail plus five years of probation. Sonja Farak had admitted to stealing and using drugs from the drug lab where she worked as a chemist for around 9 years. The disgraced chemist was sentenced to less than two years behind bars in 2014, following her guilty pleas for stealing cocaine from the lab. 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. Sonja Farak is in the grip of a rubbed-raw depression that hasn't responded to medication. 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 . 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. Lab's standards on a fairly regular basis beginning in late 2004 or early 2005," the attorney general's report notes in launching its recounting of the chemist's drug-taking journey . Where Is Sonja Farak Now? Kaczmarek argued the findings are subject to appeal. There is no allegation of misconduct against the local prosecutors who presented the case against Penate in Hampden County Superior Court. Damning evidence reveals drug lab chemist Sonja Farak's addictions. Officials recognized the worksheets for what they were: near-indisputable confessions. 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. Shawn Musgrave is a reporter who was until recently based in Boston. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. Inwardly though, Sonja Farak was striving. 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. Judge Kinder ordered her to produce all potentially privileged documents for his review to determine whether they could be disclosed. "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. Thank you! 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. motion on behalf of another client to see the evidence. It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. His email was one of more than 800 released with the Velis-Merrigan report. It declined Farak's offer of a detailed confession in exchange for leniency, nixing the offer without even negotiating terms. 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. Farak struggled with mental health throughout her life, the documentary series explains. A hearing on their motions is scheduled next month. Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. Farak admitted to being on a list of drugs while working between 2004 and her 2013 arrest. Two detectives found Farak at a courthouse waiting to testify on an unrelated matter. Ryan then filed a The latest true crime offering from Netflix is the documentary series "How to Fix a Drug Scandal." It dives into the story of Sonja Farak, a chemist who worked for a Massachusetts state drug. The court also dismissed all meth cases processed at the lab since Farak started in 2004. Martha Coakley, then attorney general for the state, argued in Melendez-Diaz that a chemist's certificate contains only "neutral, objective facts." But whether anyone investigated her conduct during a brief stint working at the state's Boston drug lab is at . Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. 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. Among other items, Kaczmarek 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. Kaczmarek was now juggling two scandals on opposite sides of the state. Stream GBH's Award-Winning Content For Parents And Children. Like Hinton, the Amherst lab had no cameras. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. One was clearly dated November 16, 2011a year and two months before her arrest. 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. Relying on an investigation conducted by state police, the judges 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. If Farak found a substance was a true drug, the person it was confiscated from could be convicted of a substance-related crime. The governor didn't appoint the inspector general or anyone else to determine how long Farak was altering samples or running analyses while high. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the Amherst lab in 2004. After serving just a year of her 18 month sentence, Farak was released from prison in 2015. 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. It's been like this forever, or at least since girlhood. 1. (Conveniently, they also found a Patriots schedule from 2011 in the car.). The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the Amherst crime . Its unclear if Farak is still with Lee, as they have both remained out of the public eye since the case. Judge Kinder denied Ryans motion. But when the relevant police reports were released to defense attorneys, there was no mention of the diary entries' existence, much less that they went back so far. This might not have mattered as much if the investigators had followed the evidence that Farak had been using drugs for at least a year and almost certainly longer. 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. Faraks notes also Would love your thoughts, please comment. On the surface, their crimes dont seem as injurious and they dont seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others. You can check your records electronically by following this link: https://icori.chs.state.ma.us. 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. . 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. 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. She later called this dismissive exchange a "plea to God.". The case of Rolando Penate has become a leading example for lawyers calling for further investigation into alleged misconduct by prosecutors who handled documents seized from Sonja Farak, the Amherst crime-lab chemist convicted of stealing and tampering with drug samples. Her ar-rest led to the dismissal of thousands of drug cases in Massachusetts. 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 judge sentenced Dookhan to three years in prison; she was granted parole in April 2016. another filing. food banks expect a surge, As streaming services boom, cable TV continues its decline. Join us. ", In 2004, her first full year at the lab, Dookhan reported analyzing approximately 700 samples per month. She had never quashed a subpoena before, but supervisors told her to fend off motions about Farak. Meier put the number at 40,323 defendants, though some have called that an overestimate. At the time of her arrest, she had resided in 37 Laurel Park in Northampton. 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 . 3.3.2023 5:45 PM, Jacob Sullum The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. But she insisted the drugs didn't compromise her worka belief that one judge would aptly declare "belies logic.". Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. The twin Massachusetts drug lab scandals are unprecedented in the sheer number of cases thrown out because of forensic misconduct. Farak signed a certification of drug samples in Penate's case on Dec. 22, 2011. 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. The Netflix docuseries ends by acknowledging that Farak received an 18-month sentence, and that defense attorney Luke Ryan was able . Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. 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! She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. 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. 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. The attorney general's officeKaczmarek or her supervisorscould have asked a judge to determine whether the worksheets were actually privileged, as Kaczmarek later acknowledged. Privacy Policy | And when defense attorneys tried to do it themselves, Coakley's office blocked their efforts. As Kaczmarek herself later observed, Farak essentially had "a drugstore at her disposal" from her first day at the Amherst lab. The justices ordered Healey's department to cover all costs of notifying all defendants whose cases were dismissed. Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. 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. Dookhan had seeded public mistrust in the criminal justice system, which "now becomes an issue in every criminal trial for every defendant.". The civil lawsuit was one of the last tied to prosecutors' disputed handling of the case against disgraced ex-chemist Sonja Farak, who was convicted in 2014 of ingesting drug samples she was.
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