Name. 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. Chemist Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to "tampering with evidence" back in 2014 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. Introduction. But unlike with Dookhan, there were no independent investigations of Farak or the Amherst lab. We couldn't do it without you. As the state's top court put it, the criminal investigation into Farak was "cursory at best.". "I suspect that if another entity was in the mix"perhaps the inspector general or an independent investigator"the Attorney General's Office would have treated the Farak case much more seriously and would have been much more reluctant to hide the ball," Ryan writes in an email. 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 . At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. The defense bar had raised concerns that prosecutors might be "perceived as having a stake" in such an investigation. As . "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. State officials rushed to condemn her loudly and publicly. Joseph Ballou, lead investigator for the state police, called them the most important documents from the car. The surveillance of the chemists as well as the standards and the confiscated drugs has also been increased considerably. 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. 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. 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. 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. GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting. Instead, she submitted an intentionally vague letter to the judge claiming defense attorneys already had everything. 1. She had unrestricted access to the evidence room. He didn't buy her quibbling that there's a difference between an explicit lie and obfuscation by grammar. Her role was to test for the presence of illegal substances, which could be instrumental in thousands of . 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. ", Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. At some point, the attorney general's office stopped chasing leads entirely. When the Farak scandal erupted, that misconduct came into view. Four months after Ryan found the worksheets, Judge Kinder "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.". The defense bar also demanded answers on how such crucial evidence stayed buried for so long. During her trial, her defense lawyer Elaine Pourinski said that Farak wasnt taking drugs to party, but instead to control her depression. Ryan finally viewed the file in the attorney generals offices in October 2014. 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. Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. It didnt matter whether or not she was the one who did the testing or some other chemist. 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. Sonja Farak is at the center of Netflix's new true crime docuseries, How To Fix a Drug Scandal. 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. In worksheet notes dated Thursday, Dec. 22, Farak Scalia may as well have been describing Dookhan. "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.". 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. "It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents, Ryan In November 2013, Dookhan pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, and perjury. "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. 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. Between 2005 and 2013, Sonja Farak was performing laboratory tests at a state drug lab in Amherst while under the influence of narcotics. This article originally appeared in print under the headline "The Chemists and the Cover-Up". Kaczmarek has repeatedly testified she did not act intentionally and that she thought the worksheets had been turned over to the district attorneys who prosecuted the cases involved. 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. Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. A Powerful EHR to Manage a Thriving Practice. She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. 3.4.2023 8:00 AM, Reason Staff 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. 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. "Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. Who is Sonja Farak? Farak signed a certification of drug samples in Penate's case on Dec. 22, 2011. 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. Both scandals undercut confidence in the criminal justice system and the validity of forensic analysis. (Featured Image Credit: Mass Live). Penate was convicted in December 2013 and sentenced to serve five to seven years. The Farak scandal came as the state grappled with another drug lab crisis. . Joseph . ordered a report on the history of her illicit behavior. She tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. compelled release of additional drug treatment records, which indicated Farak used a variety of drugs that she stole from the lab for years. Farak apparently still tested each caseunlike Annie Dookhan, another Massachusetts chemist who was arrested five months prior to Farak for fabricating test results. 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. 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. Why Won't Maryland Sell Me a Goddamn Beer? 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 . noted the mental health worksheets found in Faraks car, which had not been released. 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. "I dont know how the Velis report reached the conclusion it did after reviewing the underlying email documents, said Randy Gioia, deputy chief counsel at the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the states public defender office. Shortly into her role at Amherst, Farak decided to try liquid methamphetamine to ease her personal struggles. | That settlement awaits approval by a judge. When grand jury materials were eventually released to defense attorneys, then, they did not mention that these documents existed. 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. Farak signed Poetically, that landmark case originated from the Hinton lab, although Dookhan didn't conduct the analysis in question. State prosecutors gave Farak the immunity they had declined to grant two years earlier, then asked when she started analyzing samples while high. Martha Coakley, then attorney general for the state, argued in Melendez-Diaz that a chemist's certificate contains only "neutral, objective facts." 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. 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. Why did she do that and where has it left her? Stream GBH's Award-Winning Content For Parents And Children. 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." With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. One was clearly dated November 16, 2011a year and two months before her arrest. Exhausted from the ongoing scandal in Boston, state officials were desperate for damage control. "Thousands of defendants were kept in the dark for far too long about the government misconduct in their cases," the ACLU and the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state's public defense agency, wrote in a motion. Investigators either missed or declined opportunities to dig very deep. The Dookhan prosecution was barely underway, a grand jury having returned indictments a few weeks earlier. But a crucial issue was not before the court. 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." | Sgt. 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. After serving just a year of her 18 month sentence, Farak was released from prison in 2015. 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.