Investigators either missed or declined opportunities to dig very deep. 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. February 2013 email, to which he attached the worksheets. "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.". 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. Investigators found that Sonja Farak tested drug samples and testified in court while under the influence of methamphetamines, ketamine, cocaine, LSD and other drugs between 2005 and 2013. For people with disabilities needing assistance with the Public Files, contact Glenn Heath at 617-300-3268. Gov. Most important, they found seven worksheets from Farak's substance abuse therapy. His email was one of more than 800 released with the Velis-Merrigan report. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015. "Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. Farak signed a certification of drug samples in Penate's case on Dec. 22, 2011. Both scandals undercut confidence in the criminal justice system and the validity of forensic analysis. Its unclear if Farak is still with Lee, as they have both remained out of the public eye since the case. At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. Powered by. 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. Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. 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. "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.". (Featured Image Credit: Mass Live). In fall 2012, just five months before her arrest, Annie Dookhan confessed to faking analyses and altering samples in the Boston testing facility where she worked. In 2009, Farak branched out to the lab's amphetamine, phentermine, and cocaine standards. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. The staff in the new lab was also doubled, and the number of trainees was also increased. Because of all that, it's no surprise that Farak was sent to prison in Massachusetts. Foster consulted Kaczmarek about the files contents, according to an
Reporting for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. 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 . Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at GBH, Transparency in Coverage Cost-Sharing Disclosures. 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. That motion was denied, and the notice letters will explain Farak's tampering without any mention of prosecutorial misconduct. Foster protested that portions of the evidentiary file in question might be privileged or not subject to disclosure. When a Therapy Session starts, the software automatically creates a To-Do list item reminding users to create the relevant documentation. The information showed that Farak sought therapy for drug addiction and that her misconduct had been ongoing for years. ", Officials rushed to downplay the situation in Amherst. At the time of Penates trial, the state Attorney Generals Office contended Faraks misdeeds dated back only as far as 2012. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. 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. 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. Due to the conviction, prosecutors were forced to dismiss more than . They pulled her aside as she walked back to the courthouse from her car, where she had smoked "a fair amount of crack" during her lunch break. Dookhan's transgressions got more press attention: Her story broke first, she immediately confessed, and her misdeeds took place in big-city Boston rather than the western reaches of the state. 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 . "That was one of the lines I had thought I would never cross: I wouldn't tamper with evidence, I wouldn't smoke crack, and then I wouldn't touch other people's work," Farak said. Lets find out. In January 2014, she pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and drug possession. There is nothing to indicate that the allegations against Farak date back to the time she tested the drugs in Penates case. She started seeing a substance abuse therapist around this time. 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.". When defense lawyers asked to see evidence for themselves, state prosecutors smeared them as pursuing a "fishing expedition.". 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? 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. It declined Farak's offer of a detailed confession in exchange for leniency, nixing the offer without even negotiating terms. 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 2019, she was seen leaving the Springfield Federal Court but declined to comment on the status of the case. ", But another co-worker was suspicious, particularly since he "never saw Dookhan in front of a microscope.". 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. Exhausted from the ongoing scandal in Boston, state officials were desperate for damage control. Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. "It was almost like Dookhan wanted to get caught," one of her former co-workers told state police in 2012. The responsibility of the mess that she created should also rest upon the shoulders of her workplace that allowed her the opportunity to indulge so freely in drugs in the first place. With the Dookhan case so fresh, reporters immediately labeled Farak "the second chemist. 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. 2. They were all rendered unacceptable. 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. Gainey added that Healey is pleased with their conclusion that prosecutors and the state police acted appropriately. The fact that she ran analyses while high and regularly dipped into samples casts doubt on thousands of convictions. Having barely investigated her, prosecutors indicted Farak only for the samples in her possession the day she was caught. TherapyNotes. Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. A final decision is still pending and must be approved by the state Supreme Judicial Court. Talking Politics: Should a new government agency protect the coastline from climate change? Soon after Dookhan's arrest, Coakley's office asked the governor to order a broader independent probe of the Hinton lab. 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. In January of 2013, Sonja Farak, a chemist at a state crime lab in Massachusetts, was arrested for tampering with evidence related to criminal drug cases (Small, 2020).A year later, Farak pleaded guilty to tampering with drug evidence, theft of a controlled substance, and drug possession .She received a sentence of 18 months with 5 years of probation and was released in 2015. Accessibility | But she insisted the drugs didn't compromise her worka belief that one judge would aptly declare "belies logic.". One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. In the aftermath, the court felt it necessary to make clear that "no prosecutorhas the authority to decline to disclose exculpatory information.". The defense bar also demanded answers on how such crucial evidence stayed buried for so long. The crucial fact of her longstanding and frequent drug use also never made it into Farak's trial, much less to defendants appealing convictions predicated on her tainted analyses. 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. Meier put the number at 40,323 defendants, though some have called that an overestimate. | Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. From the March 2019 issue, "Tried to resist using @ work, but ended up failing," the forensic chemist scribbled on a diary worksheet she kept as part of her substance abuse therapy. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. Shawn Musgrave is a reporter who was until recently based in Boston. Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to stealing samples of drugs from an Amherst drug lab. According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Farak graduated with awards and distinctions. But in a
Four months after Ryan found the worksheets, Judge Kinder
Heres what you need to know about Sonja Farak: Farak was born on January 13, 1978, in Rhode Island to Stanley and Linda Farak. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. Join us. 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. One colleague called her the "super woman of the lab. 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. Without access to the diaries, the Springfield judge in 2013 found that Farak had starting stealing from samples in summer 2012. 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. wrote she "tried to resist using @ work, but ended up failing." noted the mental health worksheets found in Faraks car, which had not been released. 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 year later, in October 2014, prosecutors relented, granting access to the full evidence in Farak's case to attorney Luke Ryan. Among the papers they seized were handwritten worksheets Farak completed for drug-abuse therapy. memo to Judge Kinder the next week, Foster said she reviewed the file, and said every document in it had already been disclosed. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Kaczmarek had obtained the evidence at issue while she was prosecuting Farak on state charges of tampering with evidence and drug possession. 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. 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 stopped the interview when asked about crack pipes found at her bench, and state police towed her car back to barracks while they waited on a warrant. 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. mentioned a New England Patriots game on Saturday, Dec. 24 which corresponded with a game date in 2011. Kaczmarek also oversaw the prosecution for the attorney general's office in that case. And both pose the obvious question about how chemists could behave so badly for years without detection. Mucha gente que vio el programa se pregunta: dnde est Sonja Farak ahora? Sonja Farak had admitted to stealing and using drugs from the drug lab where she worked as a chemist for around 9 years. Sonja Farak was a chemist for a state crime lab in Massachusetts. . A scandal erupts, raising questions for the thousands of defendants in her cases. 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. Farak trabaj en el laboratorio Amherst desde el verano de 2004 y poco despus comenz a tomar las drogas del laboratorio. Thank you! There is no allegation of misconduct against the local prosecutors who presented the case against Penate in Hampden County Superior Court. He didn't buy her quibbling that there's a difference between an explicit lie and obfuscation by grammar. 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. Hearings could help decide how many of thousands of convictions tainted by Farak's testing may be overturned. The story of the intertwining Farak and Penate evidence began in January 2013, when state police arrested Farak and searched her car. After she was caught, Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the lab and was sentenced to prison time of 18 months. As . She soon crossed all these lines. YouTube | Farak is amongst one of the 18 defendants battling the lawsuit filed by Rolando Penate. As How to Fix a Drug Scandal explores, Farak had long struggled with her mental . 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. "he didn't request a warrant. The surveillance of the chemists as well as the standards and the confiscated drugs has also been increased considerably. GBH News brings you the stories, local voices, and big ideas that shape our world. Among other items, Kaczmarek
Though. A hearing on their motions is scheduled next month. 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. Kaczmarek argued the findings are subject to appeal. Robertson rejected Kaczmarek's claims she should not be held responsible for the turning over of exculpatory evidence because she was not part of the "prosecution team" in Penate's case. It was. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. The Farak documents indicate she used drugs on the very day she certified samples as heroin in Penates case. The lead prosecutor on Farak's case knew about the diaries, as did supervisors at the state attorney general's office. Former chemist Annie Dookhan was convicted in 2013 on charges of improperly testing drug evidence at a drug lab in Boston. But Ryan, who represented Penate, suspected it was more extensive. The disgraced chemist was sentenced to less than two years behind bars in 2014, following her guilty pleas for stealing cocaine from the lab. The medical records stated that she did not have an existing drug problem that was amplified by her access to more substances. 3.4.2023 8:00 AM, Reason Staff That settlement awaits approval by a judge. 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.". Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. State prosecutors gave Farak the immunity they had declined to grant two years earlier, then asked when she started analyzing samples while high. In a March 2013
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. Kaczmarek got a note from Sgt. Per her own court testimony, as shown in the docu-series, Farak started working at a state drug lab in Amherst in 2004. During the next four years, she would periodically sober up and then relapse. Damning evidence reveals drug lab chemist Sonja Farak's addictions. She was arrested in 2013 when the supervisor at the Amherst lab was made aware that two samples were missing. Coakley's office finally launched a criminal investigation in July 2012, more than a year after the infraction was discovered by Dookhan's supervisors. 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. A. She grew up in Portsmouth with her sister Amy. 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. To better estimate how many convictions will have to be reviewed because of Farak, the Supreme Judicial Court
Kaczmarek, along with former assistant attorneys general Kris Foster and John Verner, all face possible sanctions. 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. 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. "Annie Dookhan's alleged actions corrupted the integrity of the criminal justice system, and there are many victims as a result of this," Coakley said at a press conference. 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." 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. Penate alleged Kaczmarek's actions violated his "Brady rights," which require prosecutors to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. What Did Sonja Farak Do, Exactly? 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." State prosecutors hadnt provided this evidence to other district attorneys offices contending with the Farak fallout, either. Her medical records included notes from Faraks therapist in Amherst, Anna Kogan. "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. In 2012, she began taking from co-workers' samples, forging intake forms and editing the lab database to cover her tracks. Joseph . But unlike with Dookhan, no one launched a bigger investigation of Farak. 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 . Sonja Farak is in the grip of a rubbed-raw depression that hasn't responded to medication. "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." 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. 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. As Kaczmarek herself later observed, Farak essentially had "a drugstore at her disposal" from her first day at the Amherst lab. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. A status hearing on Penate's suit, which was filed in 2017, is scheduled for July. . Foster and another assistant attorney general assented to that motion. 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. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the Amherst lab in 2004. Chemist Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to "tampering with evidence" back in 2014 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. They tend to be more freeform notes about the session and your impressions of the client's statements and demeanour. "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. 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.". 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. The lawsuit names Kaczmarek, Farak and three members of the state police. 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. Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. "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'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. Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. On another worksheet chronicling her struggle not to use, she described 12 of the next 13 samples assigned to her for testing as "urge-ful.". As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. another filing. 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. She couldn't be sure which cases these were, Dookhan told investigators. The number is 888-999-2881. On the surface, their crimes dont seem as injurious and they dont seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others. 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.". She was sentenced in 2014 to 18 months in prison and 5 years of probation. This threw every sample she had ever tested into question. May 2003 started working in Hinton drug lab p. 14. The governor also tapped a local attorney, David Meier, to count how many individuals' cases might be tainted. Officials recognized the worksheets for what they were: near-indisputable confessions. 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. Farak admitted in testimony that she began using drugs almost as soon as she started working at the Massachusetts State Crime Lab in Amherst. motion on behalf of another client to see the evidence. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. In November 2013, Dookhan pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, and perjury. The attorney general's representative at these hearings was Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster, a recent hire. Between the two women, 47,000 drug convictions and guilty pleas have been dismissed in the last two years, many for misdemeanor possession. 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. | Sonja Farak in How to Fix a Drug Scandal. Penate was convicted in December 2013 and sentenced to serve five to seven years. The justices ordered Healey's department to cover all costs of notifying all defendants whose cases were dismissed. Rollins said it covers "a period of time in which either now disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan, or another convicted chemist Sonja Farak ," worked there. It included information about the type of drugs she tampered with. ", Prosecutors maintained that Faraks rogue behavior spanned just a few months. Penate argued the court should follow those findings. 1. 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.
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