She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. She had been accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress in addition to the conspiracy to violate [Penates] civil rights.. Because state prosecutors hid Farak's substance abuse diaries, it took far too long for the full timeline of her crimes to become public. 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. State chemist may have affected more drug cases than previously known 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." Thank you! 3.3.2023 5:45 PM, Jacob Sullum 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. answered that the state considered the evidence irrelevant to any case other than Faraks.. Her wrongdoings were exposed when unsealed cocaine and a crack pipe were found under her desk. Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. The Amherst lab had called state police when the two missing samples were noticed in 2013. She recovered, made it through college and got a job as a chemist at the Amherst Crime Lab, where she tested confiscated drugs. 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. Heres what you need to know about Sonja Farak: Farak was born on January 13, 1978, in Rhode Island to Stanley and Linda Farak. Why Won't Maryland Sell Me a Goddamn Beer? chemist, Sonja Farak, had been battling drug addiction and had tampered with samples she was assigned to test around the time she tested the samples in Penate's case. 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. Her role was to test for the presence of illegal substances, which could be instrumental in thousands of . 2. In Sonja Farak drug lab scandal, Mass - The Washington Post 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 even made her own crack in the lab. She started smoking crack cocaine in 2011 and was soon using it 10 to 12 times a day. Several defense attorneys who called for the Velis-Merrigan investigation say the former judges and their state police investigators got it wrong. One colleague called her the "super woman of the lab. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. Kaczmarek wrote back. wrote to the Attorney Generals Office two days later. Farak was getting high off the confiscated drugs police sent her way before replacing the evidence with fake drugs. The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the story of the Massachusetts Attorney General's office apparently turning a blind eye on those wrongfully convicted because of Farak's mistakes. They wrote that Lee, disabled by a stew of mental ailments, [spent] her hours surfing the Web in a haze.. Sonja Farak, who worked as a chemist at the Amherst drug lab since 2004, was arrested in January 2013 after one of her co-workers noticed samples were missing from evidence. At the time of her arrest, she had resided in 37 Laurel Park in Northampton. This very well could have been the end of the investigative trail but for a few stubborn defense lawyers, who appealed the ruling. 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. She was also testifying in court while high. Where is Sonja Farak Now? - The Cinemaholic In "How to Fix a Drug Scandal," a new four-part Netflix docuseries, documentary filmmaker Erin Lee Carr presents the stories of Massachusetts drug lab chemists Annie Dookhan and Sonja Farak, and . 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. "I remember actually sitting on the stand and looking at it," Farak said of her first time swiping from evidence in a trafficking case, "knowing that I had analyzed the sample and that I had then tampered with it.". At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. "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 her release, she has kept a low profile and managed to stay out of the public . How to Fix a Drug Scandal: behind a staggering Netflix crime docuseries Even the master's degree on her rsum was fabricated. She was sentenced to 18 months in jail plus five years of probation. The judge ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys to coordinate on identifying undisclosed emails related to documents seized from the disgraced state crime lab chemist. As . Emma Camp 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. Judge Kinder denied Ryans motion. email highlighted in the Velis-Merrigan report. In a letter filed with the Supreme Court, Julianne Nassif, a lab supervisor, wrote that Hinton had "appropriate quality control" measures. Sonja Farak is at the center of Netflix's new true crime docuseries, How To Fix a Drug Scandal. 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. It didnt matter whether or not she was the one who did the testing or some other chemist. His email was one of more than 800 released with the Velis-Merrigan report. Fue arrestada el 19 de enero de 2013. Shawn Musgrave (Netflix) A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. Cleverly omitting pronouns, she wrote that "after reviewing" the file, "every documenthas been disclosed." 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. Report shows more than 24k wrongful convictions dismissed in drug lab Approximately one year later, she pled guilty to tampering with evidence, unlawful possession, and stealing narcotics. A year later, in October 2014, prosecutors relented, granting access to the full evidence in Farak's case to attorney Luke Ryan. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. After the Supreme Court's decision, a skeptical colleague started tracking how many microscope slides Dookhan used to test samples for cocaine. How To Write Therapy Progress Notes: 8 Templates & Examples - Quenza Farak as a young. 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. She tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. Chemist was high at work for 8 years: court docs - CBS News 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. A scandal erupts, raising questions for the thousands of defendants in her cases. Who is Sonja Farak? Our streamlined software is accessible wherever and whenever you . In court, she added that there was "no smoking gun" in the evidence. Where Is Sonja Farak Now? Former chemist Annie Dookhan was convicted in 2013 on charges of improperly testing drug evidence at a drug lab in Boston. Coakley did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. 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. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Sonja Farak is the subject of Netflix's "How To Fix a Drug Scandal. She had never quashed a subpoena before, but supervisors told her to fend off motions about Farak. With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. mentioned a New England Patriots game on Saturday, Dec. 24 which corresponded with a game date in 2011. Rollins said it covers "a period of time in which either now disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan, or another convicted chemist Sonja Farak ," worked there. 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 . Hearing Officer Finds Misconduct Against Former Drug Lab Prosecutors - WBUR 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. 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. Shawn Musgrave is a reporter who was until recently based in Boston. 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. After contemplating another suicide, she settled on drugs, and the fact that she had such easy access to it at her workplace made it easier for her to get lost in that world. He recommended she lose her law license for two years; the Office of Bar Counsel later argued Kaczmarek should be disbarred. The actions of Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan caused a racket of such a scale that the state had to recompense for it with millions of dollars and had to make a historic move in the dismissal of wrongful convictions. Defense attorneys had. This not only led to people getting a reprieve from prison but also filing their own lawsuits against the injustice they had to suffer. Farak worked under the influence of drugs for nine years - from 2004 to 2013 - before she was caught. Ryan finally viewed the file in the attorney generals offices in October 2014. Farak started at Amherst lab in Aug 2004 p. 32. "I suspect that if another entity was in the mix"perhaps the inspector general or an independent investigator"the Attorney General's Office would have treated the Farak case much more seriously and would have been much more reluctant to hide the ball," Ryan writes in an email. 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.". Where Is Sonja Farak From 'How To Fix A Drug Scandal' Now? - Women's Health As he leafed through three boxes of evidence, he found the substance abuse worksheets and diaries. The justices ordered Healey's department to cover all costs of notifying all defendants whose cases were dismissed. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. In the aftermath, the court felt it necessary to make clear that "no prosecutorhas the authority to decline to disclose exculpatory information.". Sonja Farak in How to Fix a Drug Scandal. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Farak graduated with awards and distinctions. 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. Who Is Sonja Farak From Netflix Docu-Series How To Fix A Drug Scandal ", Prosecutors nationwide pretty uniformly backed this argument, which the Supreme Court rejected in a 54 opinion. Having barely investigated her, prosecutors indicted Farak only for the samples in her possession the day she was caught. The four years since Ryan discovered Farak's diaries have been a bitter fight over this question of culpabilitywhether Kaczmarek, Foster, and their colleagues were merely careless or whether they deliberately hid crucial evidence. 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. Her job consisted of testing drugs that have. Farak admitted to being on a list of drugs while working between 2004 and her 2013 arrest. Foster and another assistant attorney general assented to that motion. How to write better therapy progress notes: 10 examples 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. Sonja Farak: Prosecutors kept drug abuse evidence secret so - MEAWW Discipline recommended for former assistant attorneys - Masslive Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. It was. In January 2014, she pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and drug possession. Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. El 6 de enero de 2014, Farak se declar culpable de los cargos en su contra. Per her own court testimony, as shown in the docu-series, Farak started working at a state drug lab in Amherst in 2004. 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. Psychotherapy Progress Notes, as shown above, can be populated using clinical codes before they are linked with a client's appointments for easier admin and use in sessions. This is merely a fishing expedition, Foster wrote in It took another three years for the truth to emerge. Farak was released from prison in 2015 and has kept a low profile since. 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." GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting. But she worried they might be privileged as health information. Former State Chemist High At Work For Nearly 8 Years, Documents Say motion with Hampden Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Kinder to see the evidence for himself. "No reasonable individual could have failed to appreciate the unlawfulness of [Kaczmarek's] actions in these circumstances," Robertson wrote in her ruling. 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. She was ar-rested for tampering with evidence while abusing narcotics at work. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 Contributed by Shawn Musgrave (Musgrave Investigations) p. 1. 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. Most important, they found seven worksheets from Farak's substance abuse therapy. ", Prosecutors maintained that Faraks rogue behavior spanned just a few months. 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.". At this point, Farakunlike Dookhandidn't admit anything. Kaczmarek was now juggling two scandals on opposite sides of the state. That motion was denied, and the notice letters will explain Farak's tampering without any mention of prosecutorial misconduct. State prosecutors hadnt provided this evidence to other district attorneys offices contending with the Farak fallout, either. NORTHAMPTON Sonja J. Farak told a nurse at the Western Massachusetts Thus, only defendants whose evidence she tested in the six-month window before her arrest could challenge their cases. Sonja Farak now: what happened to the chemist featured in How to Fix a The fact that she ran analyses while high and regularly dipped into samples casts doubt on thousands of convictions. This threw every sample she had ever tested into question. 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. Hearings could help decide how many of thousands of convictions tainted by Farak's testing may be overturned. But unlike with Dookhan, no one launched a bigger investigation of Farak. ordered a report on the history of her illicit behavior. Kaczmarek had obtained the evidence at issue while she was prosecuting Farak on state charges of tampering with evidence and drug possession. Joseph Ballou, lead investigator for the state police, called them the most important documents from the car. Exhausted from the ongoing scandal in Boston, state officials were desperate for damage control. 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. Shortly into her role at Amherst, Farak decided to try liquid methamphetamine to ease her personal struggles. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. 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." High Massachusetts Lab Chemist Causes Thousands Of Drug Cases To Be Dismissed. Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. 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. 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. 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. 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. Accessibility | A drug chemist . 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. Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. Netflix released a new docu-series called "How to Fix a Drug Scandal." "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. Shown results suggesting otherwise, she copped to contaminating samples "a few times" during the previous "two to three years.". It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. 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. 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 worksheets, essentially counseling notes, showed that Farak had been using drugs often on the job for much longer than the attorney general's office had claimed. Fortunately, the courts largely ignored this shallow investigation. In fall 2013, a Springfield, Massachusetts, judge convened hearings with the explicit aim of establishing "the timing and scope" of Farak's "alleged criminal conduct.". After graduating from Portsmouth High School, Farak attended the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she got a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry in 2000. The staff in the new lab was also doubled, and the number of trainees was also increased. The former judges and the state police officers who helped them conducted a thorough review, said Emalie Gainey, spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey. She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. Meanwhile, other top prosecutors, including Coakley, largely escaped criticism for their collective failure to hand over evidence that they were bound by constitutional mandate to share with defendants. 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.
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