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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. "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. To multiple courts' amazement, her incessant drug use never caught the attention of her co-workers. Its unclear if Farak is still with Lee, as they have both remained out of the public eye since the case. Dookhan was sentenced to prison in 2013. 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. wrote to the Attorney Generals Office two days later. But why were a small handful of prosecutors allowed total control over evidence about one of the worst criminal justice failures in recent memory? With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. 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. Why did she do that and where has it left her? "he didn't request a warrant. When a Therapy Session starts, the software automatically creates a To-Do list item reminding users to create the relevant documentation. 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. Coakley's office finally launched a criminal investigation in July 2012, more than a year after the infraction was discovered by Dookhan's supervisors. High Massachusetts Lab Chemist Causes Thousands Of Drug Cases To Be Dismissed. Because state prosecutors hid Farak's substance abuse diaries, it took far too long for the full timeline of her crimes to become public. 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.". Penate is seeking a new trial, contending the conviction should be reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct and evidence tainted by Farak. "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. She recovered, made it through college and got a job as a chemist at the Amherst Crime Lab, where she tested confiscated drugs. 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. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Penate's lawsuit, which seeks $5.7 million in damages, is believed to be one of the last remaining suits tied to the scandals; the statute of limitations to file such suits has expired. Ryan finally viewed the file in the attorney generals offices in October 2014. 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.". The special hearing officer found Kaczmarek "displayed no remorse" and was "not candid" during the disciplinary proceedings. 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. One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Scott Allen. One was clearly dated November 16, 2011a year and two months before her arrest. The Farak documents indicate she used drugs on the very day she certified samples as heroin in Penates case. Kaczmarek was now juggling two scandals on opposite sides of the state. 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.". Foster replied that because the investigation against Farak was ongoing, she couldnt let him see it. Farak was getting high off the confiscated drugs police sent her way before replacing the evidence with fake drugs. Mucha gente que vio el programa se pregunta: dnde est Sonja Farak ahora? But a crucial issue was not before the court. Each employee had a unique swipe card, but Farak simply used a physical key to get in after hours and on weekends. 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. 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.. 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. 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. Penate argued the court should follow those findings. At some point, the attorney general's office stopped chasing leads entirely. Meier put the number at 40,323 defendants, though some have called that an overestimate. (Featured Image Credit: Mass Live). The lawsuit names Kaczmarek, Farak and three members of the state police. Episode 2. Since her release, she has kept a low profile and managed to stay out of the public . Kaczmarek quoted the worksheets in a memo to her supervisor, Verner, and others, summarizing that they revealed Farak's "struggle with substance abuse." Gainey added that Healey is pleased with their conclusion that prosecutors and the state police acted appropriately. Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. Coakley assigned the case against Dookhan to Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek and her supervisor, John Verner. She was struggling to suppress mental health issues, depression in particular, and she tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. In 2019, the chemist was spotted at federal court in Springfield, MA , attending a civil case. Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. 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." Sonja Farak had admitted to stealing and using drugs from the drug lab where she worked as a chemist for around 9 years. noted the mental health worksheets found in Faraks car, which had not been released. The crucial fact of her longstanding and frequent drug use also never made it into Farak's trial, much less to defendants appealing convictions predicated on her tainted analyses. Rollins said it covers "a period of time in which either now disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan, or another convicted chemist Sonja Farak ," worked there. (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. 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. She couldn't be sure which cases these were, Dookhan told investigators. 3.3.2023 4:50 PM, 2022 Reason Foundation | mentioned a New England Patriots game on Saturday, Dec. 24 which corresponded with a game date in 2011. 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. 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. Sonja Farak was a chemist for a state crime lab in Massachusetts. 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. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the Amherst lab in 2004. They tend to be more freeform notes about the session and your impressions of the client's statements and demeanour. Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. The attorney general's representative at these hearings was Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster, a recent hire. The staff in the new lab was also doubled, and the number of trainees was also increased. 3.3.2023 5:45 PM, Jacob Sullum In the series, it's explained that Farak loved the energy the meth gave her. Sonja Farak in How to Fix a Drug Scandal. Kaczmarek had obtained the evidence at issue while she was prosecuting Farak on state charges of tampering with evidence and drug possession. Hearings could help decide how many of thousands of convictions tainted by Farak's testing may be overturned. She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. 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." Dookhan had seeded public mistrust in the criminal justice system, which "now becomes an issue in every criminal trial for every defendant.". 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. Defense attorneys had. Sonja Farak was a chemist at a state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 2005 to 2013. Shawn Musgrave 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. Robertson rejected Kaczmarek's claims she should not be held responsible for the turning over of exculpatory evidence because she was not part of the "prosecution team" in Penate's case. 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. 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. Foster But she worried they might be privileged as health information. After serving for 13 months, she was released on parole in 2015. Four months after Ryan found the worksheets, Judge Kinder The governor didn't appoint the inspector general or anyone else to determine how long Farak was altering samples or running analyses while high. As Solotaroff recounts in detail, Massachusetts attorney Luke Ryan represented two people who were accused of drug charges that Farak had analyzed . Several defense attorneys who called for the Velis-Merrigan investigation say the former judges and their state police investigators got it wrong. "All Defendant had to do to honor the Plaintiffs Brady rights was to turn over copies of documents that were obviously exculpatory as to the Farak defendants or accede to one of the repeated requests from counsel, including Plaintiffs counsel, that they be permitted to inspect the evidence seized from Faraks car," Robertson wrote in her ruling. They pulled her aside as she walked back to the courthouse from her car, where she had smoked "a fair amount of crack" during her lunch break. The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. Most important, they found seven worksheets from Farak's substance abuse therapy. The newest true crime series from Netflix, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, was released on April 1, 2020. 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. "Whether law enforcement officials overlooked these papers or intentionally suppressed them is a question for another day.". 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. In a letter filed with the Supreme Court, Julianne Nassif, a lab supervisor, wrote that Hinton had "appropriate quality control" measures. Investigators gave that information to Kaczmarek and the state AG's office,according tohearings before thestate board that disciplines attorneys. In an August 2013 email, Ryan asked Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster to review evidence taken from Farak. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Sonja Farak is the subject of Netflix's "How To Fix a Drug Scandal. The Dookhan prosecution was barely underway, a grand jury having returned indictments a few weeks earlier. Martha Coakley, then attorney general for the state, argued in Melendez-Diaz that a chemist's certificate contains only "neutral, objective facts." "The gravity of the present case cannot be overstated," Kaczmarek wrote in her memo recommending a prison sentence of five to seven years. 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 had no surveillance cameras, laughable security on evidence safes, and "laissez faire" management, which the state inspector general determined was the "most glaring factor that led to the Dookhan crisis. One colleague called her the "super woman of the lab. 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. The scandal led. 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. The former judges and the state police officers who helped them conducted a thorough review, said Emalie Gainey, spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey. The court also dismissed all meth cases processed at the lab since Farak started in 2004. ", Officials rushed to downplay the situation in Amherst. She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. (Conveniently, they also found a Patriots schedule from 2011 in the car.). Both scandals undercut confidence in the criminal justice system and the validity of forensic analysis. answered that the state considered the evidence irrelevant to any case other than Faraks.. 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. Farak signed Farak started at Amherst lab in Aug 2004 p. 32. 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.

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