As How to Fix a Drug Scandal explores, Farak had long struggled with her mental . At the time of Penates trial, the state Attorney Generals Office contended Faraks misdeeds dated back only as far as 2012. El 6 de enero de 2014, Farak se declar culpable de los cargos en su contra. She was also under the influence when she took the stand during her trial. Disgraced drug lab chemist Sonja Farak emerges as her own attorney as defendant in $5.7 million federal lawsuit. food banks expect a surge, As streaming services boom, cable TV continues its decline. Mucha gente que vio el programa se pregunta: dnde est Sonja Farak ahora? 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. In 2012, she began taking from co-workers' samples, forging intake forms and editing the lab database to cover her tracks. As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. Officials recognized the worksheets for what they were: near-indisputable confessions. email highlighted in the Velis-Merrigan report. Who is Sonja Farak? Gov. 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. 2. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Maybe it's not a matter of checklists or reminders that prosecutors have to keep their eyes open for improprieties. Penate was convicted in December 2013 and sentenced to serve five to seven years. 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. 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 . And then the bigger investigation was going to be someone else.". And yet, despite explicit requests for this kind of evidence, 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. The defense bar also demanded answers on how such crucial evidence stayed buried for so long. 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." Due to the conviction, prosecutors were forced to dismiss more than . Episode 1. Without access to the diaries, the Springfield judge in 2013 found that Farak had starting stealing from samples in summer 2012. Even before her arrest, the Department of Public Health had launched an internal inquiry into how such misconduct had gone undetected for such a long time. From the March 2019 issue, "Tried to resist using @ work, but ended up failing," the forensic chemist scribbled on a diary worksheet she kept as part of her substance abuse therapy. Patrick appointed the state inspector general to look into it. shipped nearly 300 pages of previously undisclosed materials to local prosecutors around the state. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at GBH, Transparency in Coverage Cost-Sharing Disclosures. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. In the series, it's explained that Farak loved the energy the meth gave her. "Whether law enforcement officials overlooked these papers or intentionally suppressed them is a question for another day.". And both pose the obvious question about how chemists could behave so badly for years without detection. Episode 2. In a letter filed with the Supreme Court, Julianne Nassif, a lab supervisor, wrote that Hinton had "appropriate quality control" measures. It was. 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. But why were a small handful of prosecutors allowed total control over evidence about one of the worst criminal justice failures in recent memory? After weeks of hearings, a "special hearing officer" selected by the board recommended potential sanctions against them all. Coakley assigned the case against Dookhan to Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek and her supervisor, John Verner. The twin Massachusetts drug lab scandals are unprecedented in the sheer number of cases thrown out because of forensic misconduct. Kaczmarek wrote back. The Netflix docuseries ends by acknowledging that Farak received an 18-month sentence, and that defense attorney Luke Ryan was able . Investigators gave that information to Kaczmarek and the state AG's office,according tohearings before thestate board that disciplines attorneys. Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. With the Dookhan case so fresh, reporters immediately labeled Farak "the second chemist. "It was almost like Dookhan wanted to get caught," one of her former co-workers told state police in 2012. What Did Sonja Farak Do, Exactly? How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Scott Allen. On another worksheet chronicling her struggle not to use, she described 12 of the next 13 samples assigned to her for testing as "urge-ful.". 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. Kaczmarek got a note from Sgt. The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. Her job consisted of testing drugs that have. Magistrate Judge Robertson denied a request in Penate's lawsuit that Kaczmarek be prohibited from contesting the special hearing officer's findings. 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. 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. When a Therapy Session starts, the software automatically creates a To-Do list item reminding users to create the relevant documentation. Regarding the cases that she had handled, the Massachusetts courts threw out every case in the Amherst lab during her tenure. 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. wrote to the Attorney Generals Office two days later. memo, Kaczmarek told her supervisors that "Farak's admissions on her 'emotional worksheets' recovered from her car detail her struggle with substance abuse. Even as they filed numerous motions for information about how long Farak had been using drugs, the defense attorneys had no idea these worksheets existed. Her access to evidence was not restricted, and she continued testifying in court. 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. Sgt. 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. 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. 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. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015. Farak signed 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. 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. Perhaps, as criminal justice scandals inevitably emerge, we need to get more independent eyes on the evidence from the start. The Farak scandal came as the state grappled with another drug lab crisis. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. If chemists had to testify in person, Coakley warned melodramatically, misdemeanor drug prosecutions "would essentially grind to a halt. mentioned a New England Patriots game on Saturday, Dec. 24 which corresponded with a game date in 2011. February 2013 email, to which he attached the worksheets. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. Kaczmarek argued the findings are subject to appeal. Because state prosecutors hid Farak's substance abuse diaries, it took far too long for the full timeline of her crimes to become public. Soon after Dookhan's arrest, Coakley's office asked the governor to order a broader independent probe of the Hinton lab. The governor didn't appoint the inspector general or anyone else to determine how long Farak was altering samples or running analyses while high. The criminal prosecution wasn't the only investigation of the Dookhan scandal. Farak worked under the influence of drugs for nine years - from 2004 to 2013 - before she was caught. As . I felt euphoric, Kogan wrote of Farak. Shown results suggesting otherwise, she copped to contaminating samples "a few times" during the previous "two to three years.". And when defense attorneys tried to do it themselves, Coakley's office blocked their efforts. Privacy Policy | Where Is Sonja Farak Now? It declined Farak's offer of a detailed confession in exchange for leniency, nixing the offer without even negotiating terms. How to Fix a Drug Scandal is an American true crime documentary miniseries that was released on Netflix on April 1, 2020. 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. In an August 2013 email, Ryan asked Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster to review evidence taken from Farak. But unlike with Dookhan, no one launched a bigger investigation of Farak. 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. Foster and another assistant attorney general assented to that motion. concluded there was no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct or obstruction of justice in matters related to the Farak case. When defense lawyers asked to see evidence for themselves, state prosecutors smeared them as pursuing a "fishing expedition.". (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. The cocaine, found in an unsealed, completed drug-testing kit, tested negativemeaning Farak had seemingly replaced the formerly "positive" drugs with falsified substances. A drug chemist . 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. Most important, they found seven worksheets from Farak's substance abuse therapy. 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. And when the tests she did run came back negative, Dookhan added controlled substances to the vials. 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 is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the. 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.". In June 2017, following hearings in which Kaczmarek, Foster, Verner, and others took the stand, a judge found that Kaczmarek and Foster together "piled misrepresentation upon misrepresentation to shield the mental health worksheets from disclosure.". To better estimate how many convictions will have to be reviewed because of Farak, the Supreme Judicial Court 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. A federal judge has rejected claims from an embattled former state prosecutor that she is protected from liability in the fallout over a Massachusetts drug lab scandal. She had unrestricted access to the evidence room. 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. 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. Penate alleged Kaczmarek's actions violated his "Brady rights," which require prosecutors to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. Her role was to test for the presence of illegal substances, which could be instrumental in thousands of . Faraks notes also 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. 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. Both have since left the attorney general's office for other government positions. This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the story of the Massachusetts Attorney General's office apparently turning a blind eye on those wrongfully convicted because of Farak's mistakes. 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. Kaczmarek, along with former assistant attorneys general Kris Foster and John Verner, all face possible sanctions. 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. ", In 2004, her first full year at the lab, Dookhan reported analyzing approximately 700 samples per month. She grew up in Portsmouth with her sister Amy. She even made her own crack in the lab. 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. denied Penates motion to dismiss the case, saying there was no evidence that Faraks misconduct extended to his case. 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. Shawn Musgrave Martha Coakley, then attorney general for the state, argued in Melendez-Diaz that a chemist's certificate contains only "neutral, objective facts." 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. 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. Our streamlined software is accessible wherever and whenever you . We couldn't do it without you. 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. (Featured Image Credit: Mass Live). Fortunately, the courts largely ignored this shallow investigation. The lone dissenting justice called the decision "too little and too late" and argued that the severity of the scandal required tossing all the cases. 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. Chemist Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to "tampering with evidence" back in 2014 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. After she was caught, Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the lab and was sentenced to prison time of 18 months. Without even interviewing Foster, they determined there was "no evidence" of obstruction of justice by her, by Kaczmarek, or by any state prosecutor. "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. 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. 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. A judge sentenced Dookhan to three years in prison; she was granted parole in April 2016. The Dookhan prosecution was barely underway, a grand jury having returned indictments a few weeks earlier. . Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. 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! Farak signed a certification of drug samples in Penate's case on Dec. 22, 2011. Ryan finally viewed the file in the attorney generals offices in October 2014. 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. At this point, Farakunlike Dookhandidn't admit anything. Out of "an abundance of caution," Kaczmarek didn't present them to the grand jury that was convened to determine whether to indict Farak. Dookhan was sentenced to prison in 2013. There is no allegation of misconduct against the local prosecutors who presented the case against Penate in Hampden County Superior Court. 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. How to Fix A Drug Scandal takes a one-woman issue in a crumbling police drug lab and follows the way it blew up an entire legal system. At the time of her arrest, she had resided in 37 Laurel Park in Northampton. "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.". Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. She started smoking crack cocaine in 2011 and was soon using it 10 to 12 times a day. His email was one of more than 800 released with the Velis-Merrigan report. 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. Penate is seeking a new trial, contending the conviction should be reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct and evidence tainted by Farak. Democratic Gov. Farak was arrested the next day, and the attorney general's office assigned the case to Anne Kaczmarek. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 Contributed by Shawn Musgrave (Musgrave Investigations) p. 1. 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.". Below is an outline of her charges. With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. But she insisted the drugs didn't compromise her worka belief that one judge would aptly declare "belies logic.". Her ar-rest led to the dismissal of thousands of drug cases in Massachusetts. 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.". 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. Having barely investigated her, prosecutors indicted Farak only for the samples in her possession the day she was caught. High Massachusetts Lab Chemist Causes Thousands Of Drug Cases To Be Dismissed. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the Amherst crime . Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. 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.". Accessibility | In 2009, Farak branched out to the lab's amphetamine, phentermine, and cocaine standards. After serving just a year of her 18 month sentence, Farak was released from prison in 2015. According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Farak graduated with awards and distinctions. 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." You can check your records electronically by following this link: https://icori.chs.state.ma.us. She continued to experience suicidal thoughts, but instead of going through with those thoughts, she started taking the drugs that she would be testing at work. She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. It took another three years for the truth to emerge. Verner, who testified that he didn't "micromanage" Kaczmarek, escaped criticism. The lead prosecutor on Farak's case knew about the diaries, as did supervisors at the state attorney general's office. Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. a certification of drug samples in Penates case on Dec. 22, 2011. She played as the starting guard for Portsmouth High Schools freshman team. 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 . She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. Two Massachusetts drug lab technicians Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan were caught tainting evidence in separate drug labs in different but equally shocking ways. After her arrest, she received support from her parents, who showed up to her court appearances, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported. "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. Her reporting focuses on mental health, criminal justice and education. Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. 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." One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. The responsibility of the mess that she created should also rest upon the shoulders of her workplace that allowed her the opportunity to indulge so freely in drugs in the first place. "It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents, Ryan She was trying to suppress mental health issues, depression in specific, and she attempted to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. Despite such unequivocal findings of misconduct, the court removed language about Kaczmarek and Foster from notification letters to those whose cases have been dismissed, which will be sent out in early 2019. Lets find out. Join us. 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. 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. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sonja Farak is in the grip of a rubbed-raw depression that hasn't responded to medication. A local prosecutor also asked Ballou to look into a case Farak had tested as far back as 2005. 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. The court also dismissed all meth cases processed at the lab since Farak started in 2004. Velis said he stood by the findings. In addition to ordering the dismissal of many thousands of cases, the Supreme Judicial Court directed a committee to draft a "checklist" for prosecutors, clarifying their obligation to turn over evidence to defendants. Massachusetts prosecutors withheld evidence of corrupt state narcotics testing for months from a defendant facing drug charges, and didnt release it until after his conviction, according to newly surfaced documents and emails. Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. Still, the state was acquiring evidence. Farak is amongst one of the 18 defendants battling the lawsuit filed by Rolando Penate. As Solotaroff recounts in detail, Massachusetts attorney Luke Ryan represented two people who were accused of drug charges that Farak had analyzed . The attorney general's representative at these hearings was Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster, a recent hire. Would love your thoughts, please comment. "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. This very well could have been the end of the investigative trail but for a few stubborn defense lawyers, who appealed the ruling. Thank you! Since her release, she has kept a low profile and managed to stay out of the public . Relying on an investigation conducted by state police, the judges The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. According to a newspaper article from 1992, she was the first female in Rhode Island to be on a high school football team. Thanks largely to the prosecutors' deception, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in October 2018 was forced to dismiss thousands of cases Farak may never have even touched, including every single conviction based on evidence processed at the Amherst lab from 2009 to the day of Farak's arrest in 2013. "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.