Farak struggled with mental health throughout her life, the documentary series explains. Farak wasn't the first Massachusetts chemist to tamper with drug evidence. 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. 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. 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. 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 . 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. His email was one of more than 800 released with the Velis-Merrigan report. Her reporting focuses on mental health, criminal justice and education. With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. They were all rendered unacceptable. Months after Farak pleaded guilty in January 2014, Ryan filed a His report deemed Dookhan the "sole bad actor" at the lab, a finding that remains disputed in some circles. Where is Sonja now? 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. The Farak documents indicate she used drugs on the very day she certified samples as heroin in Penates case. "Whether law enforcement officials overlooked these papers or intentionally suppressed them is a question for another day.". The surveillance of the chemists as well as the standards and the confiscated drugs has also been increased considerably. Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal Story: 5 Fast Facts. Dookhan had seeded public mistrust in the criminal justice system, which "now becomes an issue in every criminal trial for every defendant.". Foster replied that because the investigation against Farak was ongoing, she couldnt let him see it. Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. 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. She was also under the influence when she took the stand during her trial. 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. Penate is seeking a new trial, contending the conviction should be reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct and evidence tainted by Farak. Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. On a Friday afternoon in January 2013, a call came in to Coakley's office: "We have another Annie Dookhan out west.". Episode 1. Below is an outline of her charges. The report Given the account that Farak was a law-abiding citizen, it is questioned as to how an "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. Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. But Ryan, who represented Penate, suspected it was more extensive. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. On the surface, their crimes dont seem as injurious and they dont seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others. ", Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. Perhaps, as criminal justice scandals inevitably emerge, we need to get more independent eyes on the evidence from the start. 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. At the very least, we expected that we would get everything they collected in their case against Farak. Flannery, now in private practice, said the substance abuse worksheets are clearly relevant to defendants challenging Faraks analysis. But why were a small handful of prosecutors allowed total control over evidence about one of the worst criminal justice failures in recent memory? Farak signed a certification of drug samples in Penate's case on Dec. 22, 2011. 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.". Would love your thoughts, please comment. In 2017, a different judge ruled that Foster's actions constituted a "fraud upon the court," calling the letter "deliberately misleading." 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. 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. | | T he day Sonja Farak's world unraveled - the day a crack pipe and sliced evidence bags of cocaine were found at her workstation - started like many others: she attended court. When defense lawyers asked to see evidence for themselves, state prosecutors smeared them as pursuing a "fishing expedition.". Obviously, after a blunder of such scale, no one would want their samples checked from the same lab. 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. This article originally appeared in print under the headline "The Chemists and the Cover-Up". GBH News brings you the stories, local voices, and big ideas that shape our world. 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. "No reasonable individual could have failed to appreciate the unlawfulness of [Kaczmarek's] actions in these circumstances," Robertson wrote in her ruling. 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. Looking back, it seems that Massachusetts law enforcement officials, reeling from the Dookhan case, simply felt they couldn't weather another full-fledged forensics scandal. motion on behalf of another client to see the evidence. The information showed that Farak sought therapy for drug addiction and that her misconduct had been ongoing for years. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. 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. According to a newspaper article from 1992, she was the first female in Rhode Island to be on a high school football team. A year later, in October 2014, prosecutors relented, granting access to the full evidence in Farak's case to attorney Luke Ryan. Out of "an abundance of caution," Kaczmarek didn't present them to the grand jury that was convened to determine whether to indict Farak. It didnt matter whether or not she was the one who did the testing or some other chemist. The Amherst lab had called state police when the two missing samples were noticed in 2013. In worksheet notes dated Thursday, Dec. 22, Farak Farak. 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. But unlike with Dookhan, there were no independent investigations of Farak or the Amherst lab. Kaczmarek argued the findings are subject to appeal. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. Two weeks after Ryans discovery, the Attorney Generals Office The staff in the new lab was also doubled, and the number of trainees was also increased. Foster On top of that, it was also ensured that no analyst would ever work without supervision. She was trying to suppress mental health issues, depression in specific, and she attempted to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. You can check your records electronically by following this link: https://icori.chs.state.ma.us. 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." Democratic Gov. Our streamlined software is accessible wherever and whenever you . "Going to use phentermine," she wrote on another, "but when I went to take it, I saw how little (v. little) there is left = ended up not using. Joseph Ballou, lead investigator for the state police, called them the most important documents from the car. The cocaine, found in an unsealed, completed drug-testing kit, tested negativemeaning Farak had seemingly replaced the formerly "positive" drugs with falsified substances. It's not as bad as Dookhan, they asserted and implied over and over. Sonja Farak worked as a chemist for the state of Massachusetts, specializing in identifying illegal substances. "Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. If Farak found a substance was a true drug, the person it was confiscated from could be convicted of a substance-related crime. Ryan then filed a At this point, Farakunlike Dookhandidn't admit anything. Farak is amongst one of the 18 defendants battling the lawsuit filed by Rolando Penate. That settlement awaits approval by a judge. Penate was convicted in December 2013 and sentenced to serve five to seven years. Because state prosecutors hid Farak's substance abuse diaries, it took far too long for the full timeline of her crimes to become public. As extensively detailed in How to Fix a Drug Scandal, Farak was arrested on January 19, 2013. 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. A status hearing on Penate's suit, which was filed in 2017, is scheduled for July. Without access to the diaries, the Springfield judge in 2013 found that Farak had starting stealing from samples in summer 2012. For years, Sonja Farak was addicted to cocaine, methamphetamine, and amphetamines, the kind of drugs usually bought from street dealers in covert transactions that carry the constant risk of arrest. She started working shortly after for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in July 2003 until July 2012, and from July 2012 until January 2013 for the Massachusetts State Police when the lab fell under their jurisdiction. 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. 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. The newest true crime series from Netflix, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, was released on April 1, 2020. Support GBH. For people with disabilities needing assistance with the Public Files, contact Glenn Heath at 617-300-3268. We couldn't do it without you. 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. 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. This was not true, as Nassif's department later conceded. The governor didn't appoint the inspector general or anyone else to determine how long Farak was altering samples or running analyses while high. Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? Her ar-rest led to the dismissal of thousands of drug cases in Massachusetts. Two Massachusetts drug lab technicians Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan were caught tainting evidence in separate drug labs in different but equally shocking ways. 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. They wrote that Lee, disabled by a stew of mental ailments, [spent] her hours surfing the Web in a haze.. How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Scott Allen. Disgraced drug lab chemist Sonja Farak emerges as her own attorney as defendant in $5.7 million federal lawsuit. As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. Foster, now general counsel at the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, and Kaczmarek, now a clerk magistrate in Suffolk Superior Court, declined to comment for this story. And when the tests she did run came back negative, Dookhan added controlled substances to the vials. A. 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. Scalia may as well have been describing Dookhan. Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. ", Prosecutors maintained that Faraks rogue behavior spanned just a few months. The lead prosecutor on Farak's case knew about the diaries, as did supervisors at the state attorney general's office. Farak was a former lab chemist at a lab in Amherst, Massachusetts and was convicted of stealing and using drugs from the lab where she worked. 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.". "The gravity of the present case cannot be overstated," Kaczmarek wrote in her memo recommending a prison sentence of five to seven years. 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. She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. As the state's top court put it, the criminal investigation into Farak was "cursory at best.". Lets find out. a certification of drug samples in Penates case on Dec. 22, 2011. The judge ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys to coordinate on identifying undisclosed emails related to documents seized from the disgraced state crime lab chemist. 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. Introduction. "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.".