He was floored when he found the worksheets. Approximately one year later, she pled guilty to tampering with evidence, unlawful possession, and stealing narcotics. Local prosecutors also remained in the dark. 1. Joseph Ballou, lead investigator for the state police, called them the most important documents from the car. Kaczmarek was now juggling two scandals on opposite sides of the state. The attorney general's officeKaczmarek or her supervisorscould have asked a judge to determine whether the worksheets were actually privileged, as Kaczmarek later acknowledged. 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. Former chemist Annie Dookhan was convicted in 2013 on charges of improperly testing drug evidence at a drug lab in Boston. Kaczmarek, along with former assistant attorneys general Kris Foster and John Verner, all face possible sanctions. sonja farak - masslive.com State prosecutors gave Farak the immunity they had declined to grant two years earlier, then asked when she started analyzing samples while high. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. Defense attorneys had. The Netflix docuseries ends by acknowledging that Farak received an 18-month sentence, and that defense attorney Luke Ryan was able . Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at GBH, Transparency in Coverage Cost-Sharing Disclosures. From 2004 to 2013, Farak took advantage of . 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.". The lead prosecutor on Farak's case knew about the diaries, as did supervisors at the state attorney general's office. Thus, only defendants whose evidence she tested in the six-month window before her arrest could challenge their cases. The place was closed as soon as Faraks crimes came to light. 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. Verner, who testified that he didn't "micromanage" Kaczmarek, escaped criticism. Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. She recovered, made it through college and got a job as a chemist at the Amherst Crime Lab, where she tested confiscated drugs. "Whether law enforcement officials overlooked these papers or intentionally suppressed them is a question for another day.". And then the bigger investigation was going to be someone else.". Gov. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. It declined Farak's offer of a detailed confession in exchange for leniency, nixing the offer without even negotiating terms. She had never quashed a subpoena before, but supervisors told her to fend off motions about Farak. 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. | Its unclear if Farak is still with Lee, as they have both remained out of the public eye since the case. Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to stealing samples of drugs from an Amherst drug lab. TherapyNotes. Having barely investigated her, prosecutors indicted Farak only for the samples in her possession the day she was caught. Sonja Farak in How to Fix a Drug Scandal. She tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. Netflix's How to Fix a Drug Scandal: A staggering true story of - Vox 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." This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the. 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. ", Officials rushed to downplay the situation in Amherst. Did Falsified Drug Tests Lead to Wrongful Convictions? - Rolling Stone May 2003 started working in Hinton drug lab p. 14. 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. "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.". 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. Out of "an abundance of caution," Kaczmarek didn't present them to the grand jury that was convened to determine whether to indict Farak. A Compelling New Take on a Massachusetts Lab Scandal Tainting Thousands "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." memo to Judge Kinder the next week, Foster said she reviewed the file, and said every document in it had already been disclosed. Accessibility | Sonja Farak stole, ingested or manufactured drugs almost every day for eight years while working as a chemist at a state lab in Amherst, Massachusetts. Although the year she wrote the notes wasnt listed on the worksheet, in the six years prior to her arrest, 2011 is the only year in which Dec. 22 fell on a Thursday. shipped nearly 300 pages of previously undisclosed materials to local prosecutors around the state. Farak was getting high off the confiscated drugs police sent her way before replacing the evidence with fake drugs. Relying on an investigation conducted by state police, the judges To multiple courts' amazement, her incessant drug use never caught the attention of her co-workers. More than 24,000 convictions in 16,449 cases tainted by former state chemist Sonja Farak have been dismissed in a court case brought by the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Committee of Public Counsel Services (CPCS), and law firm Fick & Marx LLP. 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.". The prosecutors have been tied to the drug lab scandal involving disgraced former state chemist Sonja Farak, who admitted to stealing and using drugs from an Amherst state lab. 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. But Ryan, who represented Penate, suspected it was more extensive. (Conveniently, they also found a Patriots schedule from 2011 in the car.). 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. State chemist may have affected more drug cases than previously known Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. During her trial, her defense lawyer Elaine Pourinski said that Farak wasnt taking drugs to party, but instead to control her depression. 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. Faraks wife had her own mental health problems, and according to Rolling Stone, Farak would have conflict with her wife every night at home. She was trying to suppress mental health issues, depression in specific, and she attempted to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. 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. 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.". Since then, she has kept a low profile. Cleverly omitting pronouns, she wrote that "after reviewing" the file, "every documenthas been disclosed." Foster's first stepper ethical obligations and office protocolshould have been to look through the evidence to see what had already been handed over. Where is Sonja Farak Now? - The Cinemaholic Between the two women, 47,000 drug convictions and guilty pleas have been dismissed in the last two years, many for misdemeanor possession. In 2014, former Amherst drug lab chemist Sonja Farak was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison after it was discovered that she stole and used drugs that she was entrusted to test. Sonja Farak was a chemist for a state crime lab in Massachusetts. The Farak scandal came as the state grappled with another drug lab crisis. How to write better therapy progress notes: 10 examples To better estimate how many convictions will have to be reviewed because of Farak, the Supreme Judicial Court She received the American Institute of Chemists Award in her final year as well as a Crimson and Gray Award from the school a year before, which recognized her dedication, commitment and unselfishness in the enrichment of student life at WPI. A Rolling Stone piece on Farak also indicated that she graduated with high distinction from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Sonja Farak Today: Where Is She Now? | Heavy.com Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. Her wrongdoings were exposed when unsealed cocaine and a crack pipe were found under her desk. But in a How to Fix a Drug Scandal is an American true crime documentary miniseries that was released on Netflix on April 1, 2020. Over time, Farak's drug use turned to cocaine, LSD and, eventually, crack. Penate is seeking a new trial, contending the conviction should be reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct and evidence tainted by Farak. 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! Massachusetts Chemist Prosecution Leads to Falling Consumer Confidence Kaczmarek had obtained the evidence at issue while she was prosecuting Farak on state charges of tampering with evidence and drug possession. Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. 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. Farak is amongst one of the 18 defendants battling the lawsuit filed by Rolando Penate. Drug lab cases information | Mass.gov It's been like this forever, or at least since girlhood. But she insisted the drugs didn't compromise her worka belief that one judge would aptly declare "belies logic.". Former State Chemist High At Work For Nearly 8 Years, Documents Say Her role was to test for the presence of illegal substances, which could be instrumental in thousands of . memo, Kaczmarek told her supervisors that "Farak's admissions on her 'emotional worksheets' recovered from her car detail her struggle with substance abuse. 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 took another three years for the truth to emerge. Below is an outline of her charges. She started seeing a substance abuse therapist around this time. El 6 de enero de 2014, Farak se declar culpable de los cargos en su contra. In the aftermath, the court felt it necessary to make clear that "no prosecutorhas the authority to decline to disclose exculpatory information.". Judge dismisses 'qualified immunity' claim in suit against ex - WBUR Because she did so, Plaintiff served more than five years in a state prison.". "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. 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. 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. At the time of her arrest, she had resided in 37 Laurel Park in Northampton. 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. Where Is Sonja Farak From Netflix's 'Drug Scandal' Doc Now? This not only led to people getting a reprieve from prison but also filing their own lawsuits against the injustice they had to suffer. 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 civil lawsuit was one of the last tied to prosecutors' disputed handling of the case against disgraced ex-chemist Sonja Farak, who was convicted in 2014 of ingesting drug samples she was. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. Join us. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 Contributed by Shawn Musgrave (Musgrave Investigations) p. 1. Magistrate Judge Robertson denied a request in Penate's lawsuit that Kaczmarek be prohibited from contesting the special hearing officer's findings. Even the master's degree on her rsum was fabricated. The Farak documents indicate she used drugs on the very day she certified samples as heroin in Penates case. This threw every sample she had ever tested into question. Faraks notes also She played as the starting guard for Portsmouth High Schools freshman team. Both scandals undercut confidence in the criminal justice system and the validity of forensic analysis. One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. 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. Terms Of Use, (Annie Dookhan (left) and Sonja Farak, Associated Press). 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. One was clearly dated November 16, 2011a year and two months before her arrest. Farak was released from prison in 2015 and has kept a low profile since. There is nothing to indicate that the allegations against Farak date back to the time she tested the drugs in Penates case. Introduction. 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. Penate alleged Kaczmarek's actions violated his "Brady rights," which require prosecutors to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. compelled release of additional drug treatment records, which indicated Farak used a variety of drugs that she stole from the lab for years. 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. 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. TherapyNotes Per her own court testimony, as shown in the docu-series, Farak started working at a state drug lab in Amherst in 2004. "As the gatekeeper to this evidence, she failed to turn over documents, and she adamantly opposed the requests for access. The Dookhan prosecution was barely underway, a grand jury having returned indictments a few weeks earlier. 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. Foster consulted Kaczmarek about the files contents, according to an In Sonja Farak drug lab scandal, Mass - The Washington Post Her access to evidence was not restricted, and she continued testifying in court. (Netflix) A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. The governor didn't appoint the inspector general or anyone else to determine how long Farak was altering samples or running analyses while high. 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. After serving just a year of her 18 month sentence, Farak was released from prison in 2015. The Amherst lab had called state police when the two missing samples were noticed in 2013. 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. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. Farak worked under the influence of drugs for nine years - from 2004 to 2013 - before she was caught. Sonja Farak Cracked Out - Rough Diplomacy 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. Several defense attorneys who called for the Velis-Merrigan investigation say the former judges and their state police investigators got it wrong. Foster said that Kaczmarek told her all relevant evidence had been turned over and that her supervisor told her to write the letter, though both denied these claims. Shawn Musgrave Maybe it's not a matter of checklists or reminders that prosecutors have to keep their eyes open for improprieties. But why were a small handful of prosecutors allowed total control over evidence about one of the worst criminal justice failures in recent memory? Massachusetts DA seeks to vacate thousands of drug convictions - CNN A Powerful EHR to Manage a Thriving Practice. Applying Routine Activity Theory: A Case Study of the Sonya Farak Drug Foster replied that because the investigation against Farak was ongoing, she couldnt let him see it. "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. 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. It didnt matter whether or not she was the one who did the testing or some other chemist. Shown results suggesting otherwise, she copped to contaminating samples "a few times" during the previous "two to three years.". "Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. Patrick said "the most important take-home" was that "no individual's due process rights were compromised.". 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. Sonja Farak is at the center of Netflix's new true crime docuseries, How To Fix a Drug Scandal. motion with Hampden Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Kinder to see the evidence for himself. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. Before her sentencing, Farak failed a drug test while out on bail, according to Mass Live. With the Dookhan case so fresh, reporters immediately labeled Farak "the second chemist. Patrick appointed the state inspector general to look into it. 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. 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. Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. Farak trabaj en el laboratorio Amherst desde el verano de 2004 y poco despus comenz a tomar las drogas del laboratorio. The next month, Ryan asked again. Foster and another assistant attorney general assented to that motion. 3.3.2023 4:50 PM, 2022 Reason Foundation | She said, It was about coping; it certainly wasnt about having fun; I dont think shes had fun in quite a while.. The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. She even made her own crack in the lab. 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." Initially, she had represented herself in answer to the complaints lodged against her, but later, she turned to Susan Sachs, who represented her since, not just on the Penate lawsuit, but also on any other case that emerged as the result of her actions in Amherst. Between Farak and Dookhanwho's also featured in How to Fix a Drug Scandal38,000 wrongfully convicted cases have been dismissed, according to the Washington Post. This immediately provoked questions about the thousands of cases in which her findings had contributed to the imprisonment of an individual. Process Notes/Psychotherapy Notes Process notes are sometimes also referred to as psychotherapy notesthey're the notes you take during or after a session. another filing. The charges against Penate were dismissed after Farak's conviction. 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. Name. The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Poetically, that landmark case originated from the Hinton lab, although Dookhan didn't conduct the analysis in question. Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. 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. Among the papers they seized were handwritten worksheets Farak completed for drug-abuse therapy. In the series, it's explained that Farak loved the energy the meth gave her. Since the takeover, the budget for all forensic labs across the state has been increased, by around twenty-five per cent. The surveillance of the chemists as well as the standards and the confiscated drugs has also been increased considerably. The civil lawsuit was one of the last tied to prosecutors' disputedhandling of the case against disgraced ex-chemist Sonja Farak, who was convicted in 2014 of ingesting drug samples she was supposed to test at the Amherst state drug lab. A status hearing on Penate's suit, which was filed in 2017, is scheduled for July. 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. But when the relevant police reports were released to defense attorneys, there was no mention of the diary entries' existence, much less that they went back so far. | 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 was a chemist at a state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 2005 to 2013. Investigators either missed or declined opportunities to dig very deep. "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. She was also testifying in court while high. They were all rendered unacceptable. (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. "If she were suffering from back injurymaybe she took some oxys?" When grand jury materials were eventually released to defense attorneys, then, they did not mention that these documents existed. Dookhan was sentenced to prison in 2013. 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. 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. 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. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the Amherst lab in 2004. Democratic Gov. "I was totally controlled by my addiction," Farak later testified. This was not true, as Nassif's department later conceded.
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