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. At this point, Farakunlike Dookhandidn't admit anything. 3.3.2023 4:50 PM, 2022 Reason Foundation | 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. It declined Farak's offer of a detailed confession in exchange for leniency, nixing the offer without even negotiating terms. Support GBH. 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. Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? 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! Farak received a sentence of 18 months in jail and 5 years of probation. The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Both scandals undercut confidence in the criminal justice system and the validity of forensic analysis. She tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. memo, Kaczmarek told her supervisors that "Farak's admissions on her 'emotional worksheets' recovered from her car detail her struggle with substance abuse. Soon after Dookhan's arrest, Coakley's office asked the governor to order a broader independent probe of the Hinton lab. 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. Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. Foster consulted Kaczmarek about the files contents, according to an Among other items, Kaczmarek 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. In 2019, the chemist was spotted at federal court in Springfield, MA , attending a civil case. Several defense attorneys who called for the Velis-Merrigan investigation say the former judges and their state police investigators got it wrong. This threw every sample she had ever tested into question. Another worksheet had the month and weekdays for December 2011, which police easily could have determined by cross-referencing holidays or looking up a New England Patriots game mentioned in one entry. Privacy Policy | Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. 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. 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. As How to Fix a Drug Scandal explores, Farak had long struggled with her mental . 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. 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. But a crucial issue was not before the court. This very well could have been the end of the investigative trail but for a few stubborn defense lawyers, who appealed the ruling. The story of the intertwining Farak and Penate evidence began in January 2013, when state police arrested Farak and searched her car. Because of all that, it's no surprise that Farak was sent to prison in Massachusetts. 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. Gainey added that Healey is pleased with their conclusion that prosecutors and the state police acted appropriately. Prosecutors have an obligation to give the defense exculpatory evidence including anything that could weaken evidence against defendants. Where is Sonja now? From 2004 to 2013, Farak took advantage of . Judge Kinder denied Ryans motion. Relying on an investigation conducted by state police, the judges The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the Amherst crime . ", In 2004, her first full year at the lab, Dookhan reported analyzing approximately 700 samples per month. 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. email highlighted in the Velis-Merrigan report. Its unclear if Farak is still with Lee, as they have both remained out of the public eye since the case. Shawn Musgrave 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. She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. 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 Farak's car, police found a "works kit"crack cocaine, a spatula, and copper mesh, often used as a pipe filter. The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. Disgraced drug lab chemist Sonja Farak emerges as her own attorney as defendant in $5.7 million federal lawsuit. Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. She started doing drugs almost as soon as she took the job at Amherst, but it was after years of negligence on her superiors part that her actions finally came to light. How to Fix a Drug Scandal is an American true crime documentary miniseries that was released on Netflix on April 1, 2020. 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. "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. The state's top court took an even harsher view, ruling in October 2018 that the attorney general's office as an institution was responsible for the prosecutorial misconduct of its former employees. One reason that didn't happen, he says: "the determination Coakley and her team made the morning after Farak's arrest that her misconduct did not affect the due process rights of any Farak defendants." 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 Netflix docuseries ends by acknowledging that Farak received an 18-month sentence, and that defense attorney Luke Ryan was able . Investigators gave that information to Kaczmarek and the state AG's office,according tohearings before thestate board that disciplines attorneys. They say court records and newly released emails show prosecutors sat on evidence they were familiar with that pointed to Faraks drug use in 2011, when she worked on Penates case. He recommended she lose her law license for two years; the Office of Bar Counsel later argued Kaczmarek should be disbarred. But without access to evidence showing how long Farak had been doing this, defendants with constitutional grounds for challenging their incarceration were held for months and even years longer than necessary. Farak wasn't the first Massachusetts chemist to tamper with drug evidence. "he didn't request a warrant. Accessibility | How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Scott Allen. Former chemist Annie Dookhan was convicted in 2013 on charges of improperly testing drug evidence at a drug lab in Boston. Sonja Farak was a chemist at a state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 2005 to 2013. You can try, Suspensions and a reprimand proposed for prosecutors admonished in drug lab scandal. 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. Who is Sonja Farak? 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. Here are those forms with the admissions of drug use I was talking about," a state police sergeant wrote to Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek, who led Faraks prosecution, in a Instead, Kaczmarek proceeded as if the substance abuse was a recent development. She had been accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress in addition to the conspiracy to violate [Penates] civil rights.. But in a "It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents," Ryan wrote to the attorney general's office. She received an email from a detective weeks after Farak's arrest containing detailed notes Farak made in conjunction with her own drug treatment, pointedly identified as "FARAK Admissions" but failed to disclose them for years. 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. Sonja Farak worked as a chemist for the state of Massachusetts, specializing in identifying illegal substances. He emailed them to Kaczmareksubject: "FARAK Admissions." 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. In November 2013, Dookhan pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, and perjury. Penate was convicted in December 2013 and sentenced to serve five to seven years. (Belchertown, MA, 01/22/13) Sonja Farak, 35, of Northampton, is arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown on charges that she stole cocaine and heroin while working as a. | 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? Verner, who testified that he didn't "micromanage" Kaczmarek, escaped criticism. Gov. When defense lawyers asked to see evidence for themselves, state prosecutors smeared them as pursuing a "fishing expedition.". Sonja Farak had admitted to stealing and using drugs from the drug lab where she worked as a chemist for around 9 years. This not only led to people getting a reprieve from prison but also filing their own lawsuits against the injustice they had to suffer. ordered a report on the history of her illicit behavior. The special hearing officer found Kaczmarek "displayed no remorse" and was "not candid" during the disciplinary proceedings. 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 . At some point, the attorney general's office stopped chasing leads entirely. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at GBH, Transparency in Coverage Cost-Sharing Disclosures. Her wrongdoings were exposed when unsealed cocaine and a crack pipe were found under her desk. As . A second unsealed report into allegations of wrongdoing by police and prosecutors who handled the Farak evidence, overseen by retired state judges Peter Velis and Thomas Merrigan, drew less attention. 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. Massachusetts prosecutors withheld evidence of corrupt state narcotics testing for months from a defendant facing drug charges, and didnt release it until after his conviction, according to newly surfaced documents and emails. The defense bar also demanded answers on how such crucial evidence stayed buried for so long. May 2003 started working in Hinton drug lab p. 14. Our posture is to not delve into the twists and turns of the investigation or the report and to let it stand on its own, Merrigan said. The cocaine, found in an unsealed, completed drug-testing kit, tested negativemeaning Farak had seemingly replaced the formerly "positive" drugs with falsified substances. Without access to the diaries, the Springfield judge in 2013 found that Farak had starting stealing from samples in summer 2012. Foster In her June 17 ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Katherine Robertson dismissed former Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek's claims of qualified immunity a doctrine that gives legal immunity to some public officials accused of misconduct. Our streamlined software is accessible wherever and whenever you . 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. Asked for comment, Foster in January objected through an attorney that the judge never gave her an opportunity to defend herself and that his ruling left an "indelible stain on her reputation.". Like Hinton, the Amherst lab had no cameras. Penate alleged Kaczmarek's actions violated his "Brady rights," which require prosecutors to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. 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. 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. For people with disabilities needing assistance with the Public Files, contact Glenn Heath at 617-300-3268. 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. 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. According to the documents released Tuesday, investigators found that Sonja Farak tested drug samples and testified in court while under the influence of methamphetamines, ketamine, cocaine, LSD . Powered by. Her medical records included notes from Faraks therapist in Amherst, Anna Kogan. She started smoking crack cocaine in 2011 and was soon using it 10 to 12 times a day. Kaczmarek wrote back. "No reasonable individual could have failed to appreciate the unlawfulness of [Kaczmarek's] actions in these circumstances," Robertson wrote in her ruling. 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." The number is 888-999-2881. The Amherst lab had called state police when the two missing samples were noticed in 2013. Investigators either missed or declined opportunities to dig very deep. After graduating from Portsmouth High School, Farak attended the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she got a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry in 2000. Shortly into her role at Amherst, Farak decided to try liquid methamphetamine to ease her personal struggles. 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. Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. . Where Is Sonja Farak Now? The judge ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys to coordinate on identifying undisclosed emails related to documents seized from the disgraced state crime lab chemist. A scandal erupts, raising questions for the thousands of defendants in her cases. TherapyNotes is a complete practice management system with everything you need to manage patient records, schedule appointments, meet with patients remotely, create rich documentation, and bill insurance, right at your fingertips. The Dookhan prosecution was barely underway, a grand jury having returned indictments a few weeks earlier.
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