He was floored when he found the worksheets. Farak signed I felt euphoric, Kogan wrote of Farak. 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. She's no longer in prison, as Farak has served her sentence. Despite such unequivocal findings of misconduct, the court removed language about Kaczmarek and Foster from notification letters to those whose cases have been dismissed, which will be sent out in early 2019. Shortly into her role at Amherst, Farak decided to try liquid methamphetamine to ease her personal struggles. They were all rendered unacceptable. ", Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. The new numbers appear in a report issued by a court-designated "Special Master." 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. Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. And when the tests she did run came back negative, Dookhan added controlled substances to the vials. The medical records stated that she did not have an existing drug problem that was amplified by her access to more substances. Farak was getting high off the confiscated drugs police sent her way before replacing the evidence with fake drugs. 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.". Maybe fatigue made them sloppy, or perhaps they actively chose to look the other way as evidence piled up about the enormity of Farak's crimes. | Coakley did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. "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.". Penate argued the court should follow those findings. 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. Her access to evidence was not restricted, and she continued testifying in court. Netflix's latest true-crime series, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, dives deep into a shocking Massachusetts scandal, one that started in the humble confines of an underfunded drug testing lab and ended with an entire system in question. "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.". Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. Sonja Farak. He didn't buy her quibbling that there's a difference between an explicit lie and obfuscation by grammar. Release year: 2020. Magistrate Judge Robertson denied a request in Penate's lawsuit that Kaczmarek be prohibited from contesting the special hearing officer's findings. A local prosecutor also asked Ballou to look into a case Farak had tested as far back as 2005. 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. She tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. noted the mental health worksheets found in Faraks car, which had not been released. They never searched Farak's computer or her home. Democratic Gov. Kaczmarek quoted the worksheets in a memo to her supervisor, Verner, and others, summarizing that they revealed Farak's "struggle with substance abuse." In 2019, she was seen leaving the Springfield Federal Court but declined to comment on the status of the case. As the state's top court put it, the criminal investigation into Farak was "cursory at best.". The Dookhan prosecution was barely underway, a grand jury having returned indictments a few weeks earlier. One of the reasons for the decrepit state and standard of the Amherst lab was the lack of funds. He emailed them to Kaczmareksubject: "FARAK Admissions." She couldn't be sure which cases these were, Dookhan told investigators. It was an astoundingly light touch for the second state chemist arrested in six months. 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. One colleague called her the "super woman of the lab. The information showed that Farak sought therapy for drug addiction and that her misconduct had been ongoing for years. Several defense attorneys who called for the Velis-Merrigan investigation say the former judges and their state police investigators got it wrong. 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. It declined Farak's offer of a detailed confession in exchange for leniency, nixing the offer without even negotiating terms. 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. "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. Out of "an abundance of caution," Kaczmarek didn't present them to the grand jury that was convened to determine whether to indict Farak. Thus, only defendants whose evidence she tested in the six-month window before her arrest could challenge their cases. Fue arrestada el 19 de enero de 2013. 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 . Chemist Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to "tampering with evidence" back in 2014 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. B. ut when Penates lawyer tried to obtain the documents not certain what was in them before his clients 2013 trial, he was rebuffed by state prosecutors who said the papers were irrelevant according to emails included in investigative reports unsealed earlier this month. She soon crossed all these lines. As How to Fix a Drug Scandal explores, Farak had long struggled with her mental . 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. Sgt. Hearings could help decide how many of thousands of convictions tainted by Farak's testing may be overturned. This not only led to people getting a reprieve from prison but also filing their own lawsuits against the injustice they had to suffer. Judge Kinder ordered her to produce all potentially privileged documents for his review to determine whether they could be disclosed. She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. Our streamlined software is accessible wherever and whenever you . Nassif put Dookhan on desk duty but allowed her to finish testing cases already on her plate, including some of the samples she had taken from the locker. ordered a report on the history of her illicit behavior. The number is 888-999-2881. The Farak scandal came as the state grappled with another drug lab crisis. Yet Dookhan's brazen crimes went undetected for ages. At the time of her arrest, she had resided in 37 Laurel Park in Northampton. She also starting dipping into police-submitted samples, a "whole other level of morality," as Farak called it during a fall 2015 special grand jury session. A judge sentenced Dookhan to three years in prison; she was granted parole in April 2016. 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. This threw every sample she had ever tested into question. It's been like this forever, or at least since girlhood. motion with Hampden Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Kinder to see the evidence for himself. After serving for 13 months, she was released on parole in 2015. And so, when she pleaded guilty in January 2014, Farak got what one attorney called "de facto immunity." 2. 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. Soon after Dookhan's arrest, Coakley's office asked the governor to order a broader independent probe of the Hinton lab. Kaczmarek is one of three former prosecutors whose role in the prosecution of Farak later became the focus of several lawsuits and disciplinary hearings. Patrick appointed the state inspector general to look into it. In a letter filed with the Supreme Court, Julianne Nassif, a lab supervisor, wrote that Hinton had "appropriate quality control" measures. A drug chemist . Before her sentencing, Farak failed a drug test while out on bail, according to Mass Live. Martha Coakley, then attorney general for the state, argued in Melendez-Diaz that a chemist's certificate contains only "neutral, objective facts." But unlike with Dookhan, there were no independent investigations of Farak or the Amherst lab. "I was totally controlled by my addiction," Farak later testified. 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. "Because on almost a daily basis Farak abused narcoticsthere is no assurance that she was able to perform chemical analysis correctly," the judge found. Kaczmarek was now juggling two scandals on opposite sides of the state. The scandal led. The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. Ryan finally viewed the file in the attorney generals offices in October 2014. Name. denied Penates motion to dismiss the case, saying there was no evidence that Faraks misconduct extended to his case. Gov. Months after Farak pleaded guilty in January 2014, Ryan filed a 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. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015. Terms Of Use, (Annie Dookhan (left) and Sonja Farak, Associated Press). 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. 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. It contained substances often used to make counterfeit cocaine, including soap, baking soda, candle wax, and modeling clay, plus lab dishes, wax paper, and fragments of a crack pipe. 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. Disgraced drug lab chemist Sonja Farak emerges as her own attorney as defendant in $5.7 million federal lawsuit. . Gainey added that Healey is pleased with their conclusion that prosecutors and the state police acted appropriately. 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. Penate was convicted in December 2013 and sentenced to serve five to seven years. A scandal erupts, raising questions for the thousands of defendants in her cases. A few months before her arrest, Farak's counselor recommended in-patient rehab. Who is Sonja Farak? The governor didn't appoint the inspector general or anyone else to determine how long Farak was altering samples or running analyses while high. | 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. Relying on an investigation conducted by state police, the judges When a Therapy Session starts, the software automatically creates a To-Do list item reminding users to create the relevant documentation. 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. At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. Two detectives found Farak at a courthouse waiting to testify on an unrelated matter. At the time of Penates trial, the state Attorney Generals Office contended Faraks misdeeds dated back only as far as 2012. So, in a way, it is not from her that the queue of the blame should begin; it should be from the lab and the authorities themselves. ", Officials rushed to downplay the situation in Amherst. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. But in a Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. But a crucial issue was not before the court. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. 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. Farak signed a certification of drug samples in Penate's case on Dec. 22, 2011. Most important, they found seven worksheets from Farak's substance abuse therapy. He recommended she lose her law license for two years; the Office of Bar Counsel later argued Kaczmarek should be disbarred. From 2004 to 2013, Farak took advantage of . 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. According to the notes, Farak thought it gave her energy, helped her to get things done and not procrastinate, feel more positive., Her partner Nikki Lee testified before a grand jury that she herself had tried cocaine, that she had observed Farak using cocaine in 2000, and that she had marijuana in her house when police officers arrived to search the premises as part of their investigation of Farak., In Faraks testimony during a grand jury investigation, she said that she became a recreational drug user during graduate school and used cocaine, marihuana, and ecstasy. She also said she used heroin one time and was nervous and sick and hated every minute of it [and had] no desire to use [it] again., Farak met and settled down with Nikki Lee in her 20s. "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." Her job consisted of testing drugs that have. Sonja Farak in How to Fix a Drug Scandal. Because she did so, Plaintiff served more than five years in a state prison.". She was sentenced to 18 months in jail plus five years of probation. Foster, now general counsel at the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, and Kaczmarek, now a clerk magistrate in Suffolk Superior Court, declined to comment for this story. Farak is amongst one of the 18 defendants battling the lawsuit filed by Rolando Penate. As federal food benefits decline, Mass. Both have since left the attorney general's office for other government positions. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. But she insisted the drugs didn't compromise her worka belief that one judge would aptly declare "belies logic.". Having barely investigated her, prosecutors indicted Farak only for the samples in her possession the day she was caught. In Farak's car, police found a "works kit"crack cocaine, a spatula, and copper mesh, often used as a pipe filter. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2015by which time the current state attorney general, Maura Healey, had been electedthat it was "imperative" for the government to "thoroughly investigate the timing and scope of Farak's misconduct." Her ar-rest led to the dismissal of thousands of drug cases in Massachusetts. She had unrestricted access to the evidence room. | Instead, Kaczmarek proceeded as if the substance abuse was a recent development. 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. The Amherst lab had called state police when the two missing samples were noticed in 2013. Only a few months after Dookhan's conviction, it was discovered that another Massachusetts crime lab worker, Sonja Farak, who was addicted to drugs, not only stole her supply from the. Episode 1. 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. Kaczmarek, along with former assistant attorneys general Kris Foster and John Verner, all face possible sanctions. After she was caught, Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the lab and was sentenced to prison time of 18 months. In 2019, the chemist was spotted at federal court in Springfield, MA , attending a civil case. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. 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? Meier put the number at 40,323 defendants, though some have called that an overestimate. Because of all that, it's no surprise that Farak was sent to prison in Massachusetts. The lax security and regulations of the place and the negligent supervision of the employees and the stock of standards are the reasons why Farak was encouraged to do what she did. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. 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." That settlement awaits approval by a judge. Damning evidence reveals drug lab chemist Sonja Farak's addictions. Sonja Farak worked as a chemist for the state of Massachusetts, specializing in identifying illegal substances. 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. Dookhan's output remained implausibly high even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (2009) that defendants were entitled to cross-examine forensic chemists about their analysis. | She recovered, made it through college and got a job as a chemist at the Amherst Crime Lab, where she tested confiscated drugs. She played as the starting guard for Portsmouth High Schools freshman team. 3.3.2023 5:30 PM, Joe Lancaster Episode 2. As he leafed through three boxes of evidence, he found the substance abuse worksheets and diaries. Foster protested that portions of the evidentiary file in question might be privileged or not subject to disclosure. What Did Sonja Farak Do, Exactly? 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. His is one of what lawyers say could be thousands of convictions questioned in the wake of the Farak scandal. In 2012, she began taking from co-workers' samples, forging intake forms and editing the lab database to cover her tracks. This story is an effort to reconstruct what was known about Farak and Dookhan's crimes, and when, based on court filings, diaries, and interviews with the major players. 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. Regarding the cases that she had handled, the Massachusetts courts threw out every case in the Amherst lab during her tenure. After weeks of hearings, a "special hearing officer" selected by the board recommended potential sanctions against them all. 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. She later called this dismissive exchange a "plea to God.". This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. A final decision is still pending and must be approved by the state Supreme Judicial Court. Foster Farak admitted in testimony that she began using drugs almost as soon as she started working at the Massachusetts State Crime Lab in Amherst. Farak started at Amherst lab in Aug 2004 p. 32. This was not true, as Nassif's department later conceded. But whether anyone investigated her conduct during a brief stint working at the state's Boston drug lab is at . Penate and other defendants are asking see all of Fosters emails regarding Farak and other materials relating to the handling of evidence in the chemist's case. And both pose the obvious question about how chemists could behave so badly for years without detection. 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. a certification of drug samples in Penates case on Dec. 22, 2011. He also If Farak found a substance was a true drug, the person it was confiscated from could be convicted of a substance-related crime. She said, It was about coping; it certainly wasnt about having fun; I dont think shes had fun in quite a while.. A hearing on their motions is scheduled next month. Privacy Policy | Per her own court testimony, as shown in the docu-series, Farak started working at a state drug lab in Amherst in 2004. May 2003 started working in Hinton drug lab p. 14. 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. 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. Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. 1. "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. Due to the conviction, prosecutors were forced to dismiss more than . She was sentenced in 2014 to 18 months in prison and 5 years of probation. There is no allegation of misconduct against the local prosecutors who presented the case against Penate in Hampden County Superior Court. Farak as a young. The state and attorneys for some of the defendants agreed to a $14 million settlement to reimburse 31,000 defendants for post conviction-related costs, such as probation and parole fees, drug analysis and GPS monitoring. "It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents, Ryan 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. Even before her arrest, the Department of Public Health had launched an internal inquiry into how such misconduct had gone undetected for such a long time. "he didn't request a warrant. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. 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. wrote to the Attorney Generals Office two days later. Among the papers they seized were handwritten worksheets Farak completed for drug-abuse therapy. Instead, Coakley's office served as gatekeeper to evidence that could have untangled the scandal and freed thousands of people from prison and jail years earlier, or at least wiped their improper convictions off the books. 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. The Hinton drug lab, operated by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, appears to have been run largely on the honor system. The court also dismissed all meth cases processed at the lab since Farak started in 2004. On top of that, it was also ensured that no analyst would ever work without supervision. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Like Hinton, the Amherst lab had no cameras. Shawn Musgrave is a reporter who was until recently based in Boston. Stream GBH's Award-Winning Content For Parents And Children. Faraks therapist, Anna Kogan, wrote in her notes that Farak was worried about Nikki finding out about her addiction as well as the possible legal issues if she were ever caught. 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. The next month, Ryan asked again. answered that the state considered the evidence irrelevant to any case other than Faraks.. Coakley assigned the case against Dookhan to Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek and her supervisor, John Verner. Where Is Sonja Farak Now? 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Over time, Farak's drug use turned to cocaine, LSD and, eventually, crack. The attorney general's officeKaczmarek or her supervisorscould have asked a judge to determine whether the worksheets were actually privileged, as Kaczmarek later acknowledged. Deval Patrick's office didn't learn about the protocol breach until December 2011. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. A Powerful EHR to Manage a Thriving Practice. "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.". . Cleverly omitting pronouns, she wrote that "after reviewing" the file, "every documenthas been disclosed." "Whether law enforcement officials overlooked these papers or intentionally suppressed them is a question for another day.". Though. 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. To better estimate how many convictions will have to be reviewed because of Farak, the Supreme Judicial Court 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! Introduction.

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