Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the Amherst lab in 2004. This is merely a fishing expedition, Foster wrote in Martha Coakley, then attorney general for the state, argued in Melendez-Diaz that a chemist's certificate contains only "neutral, objective facts." But she proceeded on the hunch that Farak only became addicted in the months before her arrest, and her colleagues stonewalled people who were skeptical of that timeline. And both pose the obvious question about how chemists could behave so badly for years without detection. While Dookhan had tampered with evidence and indulged in dry-labbing, Farak stole from her workplace. Given the account that Farak was a law-abiding citizen, it is questioned as to how an Stream GBH's Award-Winning Content For Parents And Children. Foster protested that portions of the evidentiary file in question might be privileged or not subject to disclosure. 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. The Netflix docuseries ends by acknowledging that Farak received an 18-month sentence, and that defense attorney Luke Ryan was able . A status hearing on Penate's suit, which was filed in 2017, is scheduled for July. He didn't buy her quibbling that there's a difference between an explicit lie and obfuscation by grammar. Ryan then filed a Judge Kinder ordered her to produce all potentially privileged documents for his review to determine whether they could be disclosed. "Whether law enforcement officials overlooked these papers or intentionally suppressed them is a question for another day.". Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal Story: 5 Fast Facts. Kaczmarek is one of three former prosecutors whose role in the prosecution of Farak later became the focus of several lawsuits and disciplinary hearings. mentioned a New England Patriots game on Saturday, Dec. 24 which corresponded with a game date in 2011. She was struggling to suppress mental health issues, depression in particular, and she tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. 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. 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.". Lets find out. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the Amherst crime . The scandal led. 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. One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. The governor also tapped a local attorney, David Meier, to count how many individuals' cases might be tainted. "No reasonable individual could have failed to appreciate the unlawfulness of [Kaczmarek's] actions in these circumstances," Robertson wrote in her ruling. 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. With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. 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? Faraks notes also But she worried they might be privileged as health information. And so, when she pleaded guilty in January 2014, Farak got what one attorney called "de facto immunity." A scandal erupts, raising questions for the thousands of defendants in her cases. They tend to be more freeform notes about the session and your impressions of the client's statements and demeanour. State officials rushed to condemn her loudly and publicly. Its unclear if Farak is still with Lee, as they have both remained out of the public eye since the case. 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." In December 2011, after police in Springfield, Mass., had arrested Renaldo Penate for allegedly selling heroin, the drugs from that case were tested at a state drug lab by technician Sonja Farak. The former judges and the state police officers who helped them conducted a thorough review, said Emalie Gainey, spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. 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. ordered a report on the history of her illicit behavior. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Shawn Musgrave Dookhan had seeded public mistrust in the criminal justice system, which "now becomes an issue in every criminal trial for every defendant.". Though. To better estimate how many convictions will have to be reviewed because of Farak, the Supreme Judicial Court Two Massachusetts drug-testing laboratory technicians are caught tampering with and falsifying drug evidence, and prosecutors are reluctant to disclose the full extent of their criminal behavior. The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. 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. Sonja Farak is in the grip of a rubbed-raw depression that hasn't responded to medication. 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. 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. "No reasonablejury could conclude that this evidence is not favorable.". Before her sentencing, Farak failed a drug test while out on bail, according to Mass Live. In worksheet notes dated Thursday, Dec. 22, Farak wrote she "tried to resist using @ work, but ended up failing." Although the year she wrote the notes wasn't listed . Yet Dookhan's brazen crimes went undetected for ages. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at GBH, Transparency in Coverage Cost-Sharing Disclosures. Farak struggled with mental health throughout her life, the documentary series explains. "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.". "If she were suffering from back injurymaybe she took some oxys?" She was sentenced to 18 months in jail plus five years of probation. This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the. Sonja Farak worked as a chemist for the state of Massachusetts, specializing in identifying illegal substances. 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. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Cleverly omitting pronouns, she wrote that "after reviewing" the file, "every documenthas been disclosed." "Because on almost a daily basis Farak abused narcoticsthere is no assurance that she was able to perform chemical analysis correctly," the judge found. 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. Two detectives found Farak at a courthouse waiting to testify on an unrelated matter. Both scandals undercut confidence in the criminal justice system and the validity of forensic analysis. The information showed that Farak sought therapy for drug addiction and that her misconduct had been ongoing for years. After the Supreme Court's decision, a skeptical colleague started tracking how many microscope slides Dookhan used to test samples for cocaine. She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. A drug chemist . 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. "Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. Her access to evidence was not restricted, and she continued testifying in court. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. 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. Kaczmarek had obtained the evidence at issue while she was prosecuting Farak on state charges of tampering with evidence and drug possession. Why did she do that and where has it left her? Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. As extensively detailed in How to Fix a Drug Scandal, Farak was arrested on January 19, 2013. | Farak admitted in testimony that she began using drugs almost as soon as she started working at the Massachusetts State Crime Lab in Amherst. Scalia may as well have been describing Dookhan. Still, the state was acquiring evidence. His report deemed Dookhan the "sole bad actor" at the lab, a finding that remains disputed in some circles. 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. They were all rendered unacceptable. She was trying to suppress mental health issues, depression in specific, and she attempted to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. A Powerful EHR to Manage a Thriving Practice. 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. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. In the only quasi-independent probe of the Farak scandal ever ordered, Attorney General Healey and a district attorney appointed two retired judges to investigate in summer 2015. As federal food benefits decline, Mass. Democratic Gov. Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline. She tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. In a March 2013 After serving just a year of her 18 month sentence, Farak was released from prison in 2015. 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. 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. In the aftermath, the court felt it necessary to make clear that "no prosecutorhas the authority to decline to disclose exculpatory information.". 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. READ NEXT: Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal Story: 5 Fast Facts, Sonja Farak: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, Please review our privacy policy here: https://heavy.com/privacy-policy/, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Shown results suggesting otherwise, she copped to contaminating samples "a few times" during the previous "two to three years.". document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. Verner's "marching orders," he later testified, were to prosecute Farak with "what was in front of us, the car, things that were readily apparent. According to a Rolling Stone piece on Farak, she struggled with depression from an early age, one that hasnt responded to medication. They wrote that Farak attempted suicide in high school and was also hospitalized while in college. 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. Dookhan's output remained implausibly high even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (2009) that defendants were entitled to cross-examine forensic chemists about their analysis. Netflix released a new docu-series called "How to Fix a Drug Scandal." 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. 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. Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. Among the papers they seized were handwritten worksheets Farak completed for drug-abuse therapy. She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. 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. 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.". 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 . One was clearly dated November 16, 2011a year and two months before her arrest. According to her teammates, She was the best center in the league last year, and they [felt] stronger with her in there than with some guys.. But she insisted the drugs didn't compromise her worka belief that one judge would aptly declare "belies logic.". | Penate's suit said Kaczmarek withheld evidence that Farak used drugs at the lab for longer than the Massachusetts attorney general's office first claimed, and that he would not have been imprisoned based on tainted evidence. What Did Sonja Farak Do, Exactly? In 2009, Farak branched out to the lab's amphetamine, phentermine, and cocaine standards. Join us. Regarding the cases that she had handled, the Massachusetts courts threw out every case in the Amherst lab during her tenure. In a separate opinion in October 2018, the Supreme Judicial Court also ordered the state to return most court fines and probation fees to people whose cases were dismissed; one estimate puts that price tag at $10 million. This was not true, as Nassif's department later conceded. It didnt matter whether or not she was the one who did the testing or some other chemist. | 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.". "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 cocaine, found in an unsealed, completed drug-testing kit, tested negativemeaning Farak had seemingly replaced the formerly "positive" drugs with falsified substances. "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. At this point, Farakunlike Dookhandidn't admit anything. But Ryan, who represented Penate, suspected it was more extensive. She played as the starting guard for Portsmouth High Schools freshman team. 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. On the surface, their crimes dont seem as injurious and they dont seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others. As Kaczmarek herself later observed, Farak essentially had "a drugstore at her disposal" from her first day at the Amherst lab. Because state prosecutors hid Farak's substance abuse diaries, it took far too long for the full timeline of her crimes to become public. Instead, Kaczmarek proceeded as if the substance abuse was a recent development. One colleague called her the "super woman of the lab. Episode 2. The justices ordered Healey's department to cover all costs of notifying all defendants whose cases were dismissed. When defense lawyers asked to see evidence for themselves, state prosecutors smeared them as pursuing a "fishing expedition.". "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." She even made her own crack in the lab. The new numbers appear in a report issued by a court-designated "Special Master." Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. 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. 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. Disgraced drug lab chemist Sonja Farak emerges as her own attorney as defendant in $5.7 million federal lawsuit. 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. She was sentenced in 2014 to 18 months in prison and 5 years of probation. A. | 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. 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.". 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. 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. They wrote that Lee, disabled by a stew of mental ailments, [spent] her hours surfing the Web in a haze.. He also 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. The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. Farak as a young. This scandal has thrown thousands of drug cases into question, on top of more than 24,000 cases tainted by a scandal involving ex-chemist Annie Dookhan at the state's Hinton Lab in Jamaica Plain. There is nothing to indicate that the allegations against Farak date back to the time she tested the drugs in Penates case. Why Won't Maryland Sell Me a Goddamn Beer? 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. As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. In 2012, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court foundegregious prosecutorial misconduct after an assistant district attorney withheldevidence a judge had ordered him toproduce for the defense of a teenageraccused of statutory rape. Due to the conviction, prosecutors were forced to dismiss more than . | How to Fix a Drug Scandal is an American true crime documentary miniseries that was released on Netflix on April 1, 2020. 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. Approximately one year later, she pled guilty to tampering with evidence, unlawful possession, and stealing narcotics. 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. Per her own court testimony, as shown in the docu-series, Farak started working at a state drug lab in Amherst in 2004. This article originally appeared in print under the headline "The Chemists and the Cover-Up". But in a It ultimately took a blatant violation to expose Dookhan, and even then her bosses twisted themselves in knots to hold on to their "super woman.". It was. She was also under the influence when she took the stand during her trial. It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. On a Friday afternoon in January 2013, a call came in to Coakley's office: "We have another Annie Dookhan out west.". Introduction. After she was caught, Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the lab and was sentenced to prison time of 18 months. If they'd kept digging, defendants might still have learned the crucial facts. From 2004 to 2013, Farak took advantage of . 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. She recovered, made it through college and got a job as a chemist at the Amherst Crime Lab, where she tested confiscated drugs. It's not as bad as Dookhan, they asserted and implied over and over. 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. Powered by. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sonja Farak had admitted to stealing and using drugs from the drug lab where she worked as a chemist for around 9 years. Farak started at Amherst lab in Aug 2004 p. 32. Terms Of Use, (Annie Dookhan (left) and Sonja Farak, Associated Press). At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. 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. 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. The criminal prosecution wasn't the only investigation of the Dookhan scandal. Another three days later, state police conducted a full search of Farak's workstation, finding a vial of powder that tested positive for oxycodone, plus 11.7 grams of cocaine in a desk drawer. Between 2005 and 2013, Sonja Farak was performing laboratory tests at a state drug lab in Amherst while under the influence of narcotics. Joseph Ballou, lead investigator for the state police, called them the most important documents from the car. "The mental health worksheets constituted admissions by the state lab chemist assigned to analyze the samples seized in Plaintiffs case that she was stealing and using lab samples to feed a drug addiction at the time she was testing and certifying the samples in Plaintiffs case, including, in one instance, on the very day that she certified a sample," Robertson's ruling reads. In a letter filed with the Supreme Court, Julianne Nassif, a lab supervisor, wrote that Hinton had "appropriate quality control" measures. 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. February 2013 email, to which he attached the worksheets. Exhausted from the ongoing scandal in Boston, state officials were desperate for damage control. And then the bigger investigation was going to be someone else.". Farak signed ", Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. 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. 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. In November 2013, Dookhan pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, and perjury. Two Massachusetts drug lab technicians Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan were caught tainting evidence in separate drug labs in different but equally shocking ways. "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.".