Instead, she submitted an intentionally vague letter to the judge claiming defense attorneys already had everything. Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. 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. She recovered, made it through college and got a job as a chemist at the Amherst Crime Lab, where she tested confiscated drugs. After the Supreme Court's decision, a skeptical colleague started tracking how many microscope slides Dookhan used to test samples for cocaine. It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. Episode 1. Because of all that, it's no surprise that Farak was sent to prison in Massachusetts. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. 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. Patrick said "the most important take-home" was that "no individual's due process rights were compromised.". From 2004 to 2013, Farak took advantage of . Because state prosecutors hid Farak's substance abuse diaries, it took far too long for the full timeline of her crimes to become public. The report The special hearing officer found Kaczmarek "displayed no remorse" and was "not candid" during the disciplinary proceedings. Farak as a young. 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. The lawsuit names Kaczmarek, Farak and three members of the state police. After Faraks arrest in 2013, police found pages of mental health worksheets in her car indicating she'd struggled with drug addiction since at least 2011. The disgraced chemist was sentenced to less than two years behind bars in 2014, following her guilty pleas for stealing cocaine from the lab. Widening scandal at state drug lab in Mass. exposes opportunities for Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. They say court records and newly released emails show prosecutors sat on evidence they were familiar with that pointed to Faraks drug use in 2011, when she worked on Penates case. 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 Asked for comment, Foster in January objected through an attorney that the judge never gave her an opportunity to defend herself and that his ruling left an "indelible stain on her reputation.". "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. Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. motion with Hampden Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Kinder to see the evidence for himself. ordered a report on the history of her illicit behavior. denied Penates motion to dismiss the case, saying there was no evidence that Faraks misconduct extended to his case. 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. It's not as bad as Dookhan, they asserted and implied over and over. The number is 888-999-2881. This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the. 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.". 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. With the Dookhan case so fresh, reporters immediately labeled Farak "the second chemist. Commonwealth v. Cotto | ACLU Massachusetts Verner, who testified that he didn't "micromanage" Kaczmarek, escaped criticism. Kaczmarek has repeatedly testified she did not act intentionally and that she thought the worksheets had been turned over to the district attorneys who prosecuted the cases involved. A final decision is still pending and must be approved by the state Supreme Judicial Court. I felt euphoric, Kogan wrote of Farak. "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. "I would have done it": Filmmaker on indentifying with the "How to Fix The lead prosecutor on Farak's case knew about the diaries, as did supervisors at the state attorney general's office. "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. After serving just a year of her 18 month sentence, Farak was released from prison in 2015. Who Is Luke Ryan From Netflix's 'How To Fix A Drug Scandal'? | True Netflix released a new docu-series called "How to Fix a Drug Scandal." 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 June 2017, following hearings in which Kaczmarek, Foster, Verner, and others took the stand, a judge found that Kaczmarek and Foster together "piled misrepresentation upon misrepresentation to shield the mental health worksheets from disclosure.". Who Are Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan? How to Fix a Drug Scandal True Story Who is Sonja Farak, the former state drug lab chemist featured in the show? "All Defendant had to do to honor the Plaintiffs Brady rights was to turn over copies of documents that were obviously exculpatory as to the Farak defendants or accede to one of the repeated requests from counsel, including Plaintiffs counsel, that they be permitted to inspect the evidence seized from Faraks car," Robertson wrote in her ruling. Like Hinton, the Amherst lab had no cameras. 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. TherapyNotes is a complete practice management system with everything you need to manage patient records, schedule appointments, meet with patients remotely, create rich documentation, and bill insurance, right at your fingertips. She was struggling to suppress mental health issues, depression in particular, and she tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. Out of "an abundance of caution," Kaczmarek didn't present them to the grand jury that was convened to determine whether to indict Farak. 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 . Poetically, that landmark case originated from the Hinton lab, although Dookhan didn't conduct the analysis in question. 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. Did Falsified Drug Tests Lead to Wrongful Convictions? - Rolling Stone Dookhan had seeded public mistrust in the criminal justice system, which "now becomes an issue in every criminal trial for every defendant.". Despite her status as a free woman (who has seemingly disappeared from the public eye), Farak's wrongdoings continue to make waves in the Massachusetts courts. The Farak documents indicate she used drugs on the very day she certified samples as heroin in Penates case. Gainey added that Healey is pleased with their conclusion that prosecutors and the state police acted appropriately. In worksheet notes dated Thursday, Dec. 22, Farak The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. Release year: 2020. Investigators gave that information to Kaczmarek and the state AG's office,according tohearings before thestate board that disciplines attorneys. 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. 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. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. 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. Ryan then filed a Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? . 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. How to Fix a Drug Scandal - Wikipedia Damning evidence reveals drug lab chemist Sonja Farak's addictions. She grew up in Portsmouth with her sister Amy. NORTHAMPTON Sonja J. Farak told a nurse at the Western Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Scalia may as well have been describing Dookhan. Farak signed a certification of drug samples in Penate's case on Dec. 22, 2011. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the lab. There is nothing to indicate that the allegations against Farak date back to the time she tested the drugs in Penates case. "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.". Since then, she has kept a low profile. They never searched Farak's computer or her home. Perhaps, as criminal justice scandals inevitably emerge, we need to get more independent eyes on the evidence from the start. Due to the conviction, prosecutors were forced to dismiss more than . Thanks to Farak's testimony and those diary worksheets, we now know that, soon after joining the Amherst lab in 2004, Farak started skimming from the methamphetamine "standard," an undiluted oil used as a reference against which suspected meth samples are compared. | It took another three years for the truth to emerge. Chemist was high at work for 8 years: court docs - CBS News The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. "These drugswere tested fairly," Coakley claimed the day after Farak's arrest. 3.3.2023 5:45 PM, Jacob Sullum Though. 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. Massachusetts DA seeks to vacate thousands of drug convictions - CNN 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. food banks expect a surge, As streaming services boom, cable TV continues its decline. Reporting for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. As federal food benefits decline, Mass. PDF United States Court of Appeals 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. "No reasonablejury could conclude that this evidence is not favorable.". On a Friday afternoon in January 2013, a call came in to Coakley's office: "We have another Annie Dookhan out west.". The Amherst lab had called state police when the two missing samples were noticed in 2013. The surveillance of the chemists as well as the standards and the confiscated drugs has also been increased considerably. "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. As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. The fact that she ran analyses while high and regularly dipped into samples casts doubt on thousands of convictions. 1. In January 2014, she pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and drug possession. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 What Happened To Sonja From Netflix Drug Scandal Series - Refinery29 Sonja Farak had admitted to stealing and using drugs from the drug lab where she worked as a chemist for around 9 years. 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. "Whether law enforcement officials overlooked these papers or intentionally suppressed them is a question for another day.". To better estimate how many convictions will have to be reviewed because of Farak, the Supreme Judicial Court Introduction. 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.". Sonja Farak is at the center of Netflix's new true crime docuseries, How To Fix a Drug Scandal. 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. Support GBH. Netflix's How to Fix a Drug Scandal: What Happened To Sonja Farak At some point, the attorney general's office stopped chasing leads entirely. In November 2013, Dookhan pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, and perjury. Shortly into her role at Amherst, Farak decided to try liquid methamphetamine to ease her personal struggles. They were found with their packaging sliced open and their contents apparently altered. She started seeing a substance abuse therapist around this time. 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. concluded there was no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct or obstruction of justice in matters related to the Farak case. The defense bar also demanded answers on how such crucial evidence stayed buried for so long. Her role was to test for the presence of illegal substances, which could be instrumental in thousands of . This very well could have been the end of the investigative trail but for a few stubborn defense lawyers, who appealed the ruling. 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. Penate was convicted in December 2013 and sentenced to serve five to seven years. She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. Hearing Officer Finds Misconduct Against Former Drug Lab Prosecutors - WBUR 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. Her reporting focuses on mental health, criminal justice and education. Former chemist Annie Dookhan was convicted in 2013 on charges of improperly testing drug evidence at a drug lab in Boston. 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.
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