Foster And then the bigger investigation was going to be someone else.". Ryan finally viewed the file in the attorney generals offices in October 2014. Faraks notes also 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." As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. "Going to use phentermine," she wrote on another, "but when I went to take it, I saw how little (v. little) there is left = ended up not using. Among other items, Kaczmarek 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." 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. 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." Why Won't Maryland Sell Me a Goddamn Beer? Ryan then filed a In worksheet notes dated Thursday, Dec. 22, Farak She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. 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. Farak trabaj en el laboratorio Amherst desde el verano de 2004 y poco despus comenz a tomar las drogas del laboratorio. Farak was getting high off the confiscated drugs police sent her way before replacing the evidence with fake drugs. If Farak found a substance was a true drug, the person it was confiscated from could be convicted of a substance-related crime. 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. Without even interviewing Foster, they determined there was "no evidence" of obstruction of justice by her, by Kaczmarek, or by any state prosecutor. 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. Her reporting focuses on mental health, criminal justice and education. Since the takeover, the budget for all forensic labs across the state has been increased, by around twenty-five per cent. Velis said he stood by the findings. Perhaps, as criminal justice scandals inevitably emerge, we need to get more independent eyes on the evidence from the start. 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. 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. But why were a small handful of prosecutors allowed total control over evidence about one of the worst criminal justice failures in recent memory? Her ar-rest led to the dismissal of thousands of drug cases in Massachusetts. 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! At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. The information showed that Farak sought therapy for drug addiction and that her misconduct had been ongoing for years. 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. Coakley did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. 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. a certification of drug samples in Penates case on Dec. 22, 2011. A status hearing on Penate's suit, which was filed in 2017, is scheduled for July. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the Amherst lab in 2004. Among the papers they seized were handwritten worksheets Farak completed for drug-abuse therapy. It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. Foster replied that because the investigation against Farak was ongoing, she couldnt let him see it. 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. He also How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Scott Allen. "Please don't let this get more complicated than we thought," Kaczmarek replied when Ballou, the lead investigator, flagged irregularities in Farak's analysis in a case featuring pain pills. In 2019, she was seen leaving the Springfield Federal Court but declined to comment on the status of the case. Even the master's degree on her rsum was fabricated. another filing. 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 . Sonja Farak had admitted to stealing and using drugs from the drug lab where she worked as a chemist for around 9 years. "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. Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to stealing samples of drugs from an Amherst drug lab. Judge Kinder ordered her to produce all potentially privileged documents for his review to determine whether they could be disclosed. 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. She even made her own crack in the lab. Because of all that, it's no surprise that Farak was sent to prison in Massachusetts. Why did she do that and where has it left her? ", Officials rushed to downplay the situation in Amherst. Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. It was. Kaczmarek was now juggling two scandals on opposite sides of the state. Hearings could help decide how many of thousands of convictions tainted by Farak's testing may be overturned. "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. Between the two women, 47,000 drug convictions and guilty pleas have been dismissed in the last two years, many for misdemeanor possession. Sonja Farak, a state forensic chemist in western Massachusetts, was minutes away from testifying in a drug case in early 2013 when attorneys learned she was about to be arrested on charges of. 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. food banks expect a surge, As streaming services boom, cable TV continues its decline. Exhausted from the ongoing scandal in Boston, state officials were desperate for damage control. He recommended she lose her law license for two years; the Office of Bar Counsel later argued Kaczmarek should be disbarred. 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. 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. 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. Thank you! Introduction. Prosecutors have an obligation to give the defense exculpatory evidence including anything that could weaken evidence against defendants. 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. Kaczmarek argued for qualified immunity after she was sued by Rolando Penate, who spent five years in prison on drug charges in which the evidence in his case was tested by Farak. In 2009, Farak branched out to the lab's amphetamine, phentermine, and cocaine standards. Support GBH. "Because on almost a daily basis Farak abused narcoticsthere is no assurance that she was able to perform chemical analysis correctly," the judge found. . "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. motion on behalf of another client to see the evidence. 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. Foster protested that portions of the evidentiary file in question might be privileged or not subject to disclosure. Like Hinton, the Amherst lab had no cameras. motion with Hampden Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Kinder to see the evidence for himself. Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline. Farak. Powered by. Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal Story: 5 Fast Facts. 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. Sonja Farak worked as a chemist for the state of Massachusetts, specializing in identifying illegal substances. 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. Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. Several defense attorneys who called for the Velis-Merrigan investigation say the former judges and their state police investigators got it wrong. Fortunately, the courts largely ignored this shallow investigation. 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. But a crucial issue was not before the court. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the Amherst crime . 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. The attorney general's representative at these hearings was Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster, a recent hire. To better estimate how many convictions will have to be reviewed because of Farak, the Supreme Judicial Court 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. In a letter filed with the Supreme Court, Julianne Nassif, a lab supervisor, wrote that Hinton had "appropriate quality control" measures. She was arrested in 2013 when the supervisor at the Amherst lab was made aware that two samples were missing. (Conveniently, they also found a Patriots schedule from 2011 in the car.). The cocaine, found in an unsealed, completed drug-testing kit, tested negativemeaning Farak had seemingly replaced the formerly "positive" drugs with falsified substances. 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. You can check your records electronically by following this link: https://icori.chs.state.ma.us. 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.". Thus, only defendants whose evidence she tested in the six-month window before her arrest could challenge their cases. That motion was denied, and the notice letters will explain Farak's tampering without any mention of prosecutorial misconduct. 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. Local prosecutors also remained in the dark. 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. The new numbers appear in a report issued by a court-designated "Special Master." Shown results suggesting otherwise, she copped to contaminating samples "a few times" during the previous "two to three years.". 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. A local prosecutor also asked Ballou to look into a case Farak had tested as far back as 2005. Defense lawyers doubled down on challenges to every case she might have taintednot just her own, which district attorneys ultimately agreed to dismiss, but also her co-workers', based on Farak's admission that she stole from other chemists' samples. A hearing on their motions is scheduled next month. 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. They were all rendered unacceptable. The attorney general's officeKaczmarek or her supervisorscould have asked a judge to determine whether the worksheets were actually privileged, as Kaczmarek later acknowledged. 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. Maybe it's not a matter of checklists or reminders that prosecutors have to keep their eyes open for improprieties. The criminal prosecution wasn't the only investigation of the Dookhan scandal. 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.. His email was one of more than 800 released with the Velis-Merrigan report. "It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents," Ryan wrote to the attorney general's office. Yet 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. As extensively detailed in How to Fix a Drug Scandal, Farak was arrested on January 19, 2013. 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. 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. Two Massachusetts drug lab technicians Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan were caught tainting evidence in separate drug labs in different but equally shocking ways. Kaczmarek is one of three former prosecutors whose role in the prosecution of Farak later became the focus of several lawsuits and disciplinary hearings. She had never quashed a subpoena before, but supervisors told her to fend off motions about Farak. Name. 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. In the only quasi-independent probe of the Farak scandal ever ordered, Attorney General Healey and a district attorney appointed two retired judges to investigate in summer 2015.
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