Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Sonja Farak is the subject of Netflix's "How To Fix a Drug Scandal. As Kaczmarek herself later observed, Farak essentially had "a drugstore at her disposal" from her first day at the Amherst lab. 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. The attorney general's representative at these hearings was Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster, a recent hire. Rollins said it covers "a period of time in which either now disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan, or another convicted chemist Sonja Farak ," worked there. Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. His report deemed Dookhan the "sole bad actor" at the lab, a finding that remains disputed in some circles. They wrote that Lee, disabled by a stew of mental ailments, [spent] her hours surfing the Web in a haze.. And when defense attorneys tried to do it themselves, Coakley's office blocked their efforts. It declined Farak's offer of a detailed confession in exchange for leniency, nixing the offer without even negotiating terms. ", In 2004, her first full year at the lab, Dookhan reported analyzing approximately 700 samples per month. Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. 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. Due to the conviction, prosecutors were forced to dismiss more than . 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. Exhausted from the ongoing scandal in Boston, state officials were desperate for damage control. 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. Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. Coakley's office finally launched a criminal investigation in July 2012, more than a year after the infraction was discovered by Dookhan's supervisors. "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.". Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. Episode 2. 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. "It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents, Ryan 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. 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. 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. Not only did they not turn these documents over, but I wasnt aware that they existed, said Frank Flannery, who was the Hampden County assistant district attorney assigned to appeals following Faraks arrest. Patrick appointed the state inspector general to look into it. "Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. She was also under the influence when she took the stand during her trial. As he leafed through three boxes of evidence, he found the substance abuse worksheets and diaries. The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. "The mental health worksheets constituted admissions by the state lab chemist assigned to analyze the samples seized in Plaintiffs case that she was stealing and using lab samples to feed a drug addiction at the time she was testing and certifying the samples in Plaintiffs case, including, in one instance, on the very day that she certified a sample," Robertson's ruling reads. With the Dookhan case so fresh, reporters immediately labeled Farak "the second chemist. Penate alleged Kaczmarek's actions violated his "Brady rights," which require prosecutors to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. 3.4.2023 8:00 AM, Reason Staff Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. 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." 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. motion on behalf of another client to see the evidence. Instead, Kaczmarek proceeded as if the substance abuse was a recent development. Her ar-rest led to the dismissal of thousands of drug cases in Massachusetts. 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. Thus, only defendants whose evidence she tested in the six-month window before her arrest could challenge their cases. Democratic Gov. The Farak scandal came as the state grappled with another drug lab crisis. Her access to evidence was not restricted, and she continued testifying in court. 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. Damning evidence reveals drug lab chemist Sonja Farak's addictions. The governor also tapped a local attorney, David Meier, to count how many individuals' cases might be tainted. 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. She grew up in Portsmouth with her sister Amy. Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline standard stock of the stimulant phentermine to stealing crack not only from her own samples but from colleagues' as well. Below is an outline of her charges. Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Without access to the diaries, the Springfield judge in 2013 found that Farak had starting stealing from samples in summer 2012. In a March 2013 During her trial, her defense lawyer Elaine Pourinski said that Farak wasnt taking drugs to party, but instead to control her depression. Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. 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. 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. 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." 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. This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the. "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. Foster protested that portions of the evidentiary file in question might be privileged or not subject to disclosure. She later called this dismissive exchange a "plea to God.". 2. Farak trabaj en el laboratorio Amherst desde el verano de 2004 y poco despus comenz a tomar las drogas del laboratorio. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. Foster and another assistant attorney general assented to that motion. 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 . 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. It's not as bad as Dookhan, they asserted and implied over and over. 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. 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. Who is Sonja Farak? Farak. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. concluded she was usually high while working in the lab for more than eight years before her arrest in January 2013 and started stealing samples seven years ago. She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. He was floored when he found the worksheets. The staff in the new lab was also doubled, and the number of trainees was also increased. Deval Patrick's office didn't learn about the protocol breach until December 2011. Among the papers they seized were handwritten worksheets Farak completed for drug-abuse therapy. "Because on almost a daily basis Farak abused narcoticsthere is no assurance that she was able to perform chemical analysis correctly," the judge found. 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. How to Fix a Drug Scandal is an American true crime documentary miniseries that was released on Netflix on April 1, 2020. As extensively detailed in How to Fix a Drug Scandal, Farak was arrested on January 19, 2013. Over time, Farak's drug use turned to cocaine, LSD and, eventually, crack. 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. 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 . She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. Hearings could help decide how many of thousands of convictions tainted by Farak's testing may be overturned. (Belchertown, MA, 01/22/13) Sonja Farak, 35, of Northampton, is arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown on charges that she stole cocaine and heroin while working as a. When grand jury materials were eventually released to defense attorneys, then, they did not mention that these documents existed. 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.". 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. In a letter filed with the Supreme Court, Julianne Nassif, a lab supervisor, wrote that Hinton had "appropriate quality control" measures. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. 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. In worksheet notes dated Thursday, Dec. 22, Farak compelled release of additional drug treatment records, which indicated Farak used a variety of drugs that she stole from the lab for years. For people with disabilities needing assistance with the Public Files, contact Glenn Heath at 617-300-3268. The twin Massachusetts drug lab scandals are unprecedented in the sheer number of cases thrown out because of forensic misconduct. She had unrestricted access to the evidence room. Judge Kinder ordered her to produce all potentially privileged documents for his review to determine whether they could be disclosed. Why did she do that and where has it left her? Powered by. Local prosecutors also remained in the dark. 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. The number is 888-999-2881. 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. 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. The fact that she ran analyses while high and regularly dipped into samples casts doubt on thousands of convictions. If chemists had to testify in person, Coakley warned melodramatically, misdemeanor drug prosecutions "would essentially grind to a halt. A Powerful EHR to Manage a Thriving Practice. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. Out of "an abundance of caution," Kaczmarek didn't present them to the grand jury that was convened to determine whether to indict Farak. High Massachusetts Lab Chemist Causes Thousands Of Drug Cases To Be Dismissed. "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. He also Sonja Farak is in the grip of a rubbed-raw depression that hasn't responded to medication. Farak struggled with mental health throughout her life, the documentary series explains. 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. If Farak found a substance was a true drug, the person it was confiscated from could be convicted of a substance-related crime. Follow us so you don't miss a thing! 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. "he didn't request a warrant. The lawsuit names Kaczmarek, Farak and three members of the state police. Reporting for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Between 2005 and 2013, Sonja Farak was performing laboratory tests at a state drug lab in Amherst while under the influence of narcotics. Still, the state was acquiring evidence. Shortly into her role at Amherst, Farak decided to try liquid methamphetamine to ease her personal struggles. Fortunately, the courts largely ignored this shallow investigation. Her role was to test for the presence of illegal substances, which could be instrumental in thousands of . 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. 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. Though. She was sentenced in 2014 to 18 months in prison and 5 years of probation. Lets find out. Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal Story: 5 Fast Facts. Kaczmarek, along with former assistant attorneys general Kris Foster and John Verner, all face possible sanctions. In 2014, former Amherst drug lab chemist Sonja Farak was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison after it was discovered that she stole and used drugs that she was entrusted to test. There were also newspaper articles about other officials caught stealing drugs, including one with a scribbled note, "Thank god I'm not a law enforcement officer." February 2013 email, to which he attached the worksheets. Since her release, she has kept a low profile and managed to stay out of the public . Where is Sonja now? Farak was released from prison in 2015 and has kept a low profile since. From 2004 to 2013, Farak took advantage of . While Dookhan had tampered with evidence and indulged in dry-labbing, Farak stole from her workplace. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the Amherst lab in 2004. 3.3.2023 5:45 PM, Jacob Sullum The show also delves into the issues of the state in discovering and reporting on the extent of the cases that were affected by Faraks actions. Foster's first stepper ethical obligations and office protocolshould have been to look through the evidence to see what had already been handed over. She's no longer in prison, as Farak has served her sentence. The special hearing officer found Kaczmarek "displayed no remorse" and was "not candid" during the disciplinary proceedings. Who is Sonja Farak, the former state drug lab chemist featured in the show? 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. One of the reasons for the decrepit state and standard of the Amherst lab was the lack of funds. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. 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.". . Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. Coakley did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. ordered a report on the history of her illicit behavior. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. This article originally appeared in print under the headline "The Chemists and the Cover-Up". "The need to inform defendants of government misconduct does not disappear when that misconduct was committed by a government lawyer as opposed to a government chemist.". 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. Kaczmarek got a note from Sgt. The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. A drug chemist . Ryan then filed a Farak received a sentence of 18 months in jail and 5 years of probation. Chemist Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to "tampering with evidence" back in 2014 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
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