To multiple courts' amazement, her incessant drug use never caught the attention of her co-workers. It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. 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. 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? 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. Release year: 2020. Between the two women, 47,000 drug convictions and guilty pleas have been dismissed in the last two years, many for misdemeanor possession. One of the reasons for the decrepit state and standard of the Amherst lab was the lack of funds. 1. Her reporting focuses on mental health, criminal justice and education. 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. memo, Kaczmarek told her supervisors that "Farak's admissions on her 'emotional worksheets' recovered from her car detail her struggle with substance abuse. A local prosecutor also asked Ballou to look into a case Farak had tested as far back as 2005. Former chemist Annie Dookhan was convicted in 2013 on charges of improperly testing drug evidence at a drug lab in Boston. Hearings could help decide how many of thousands of convictions tainted by Farak's testing may be overturned. (Featured Image Credit: Mass Live). Poetically, that landmark case originated from the Hinton lab, although Dookhan didn't conduct the analysis in question. The report Approximately one year later, she pled guilty to tampering with evidence, unlawful possession, and stealing narcotics. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 Contributed by Shawn Musgrave (Musgrave Investigations) p. 1. They wrote that Lee, disabled by a stew of mental ailments, [spent] her hours surfing the Web in a haze.. As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. And so, when she pleaded guilty in January 2014, Farak got what one attorney called "de facto immunity." Without even interviewing Foster, they determined there was "no evidence" of obstruction of justice by her, by Kaczmarek, or by any state prosecutor. When defense lawyers asked to see evidence for themselves, state prosecutors smeared them as pursuing a "fishing expedition.". At the time of her arrest, she had resided in 37 Laurel Park in Northampton. 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. "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. Relying on an investigation conducted by state police, the judges "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. Per her own court testimony, as shown in the docu-series, Farak started working at a state drug lab in Amherst in 2004. Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal tells the story of two women whose actions brought to light the negligence of the system that is supposed to deliver justice to everyone. Who is Sonja Farak, the former state drug lab chemist featured in the show? Democratic Gov. She was also testifying in court while high. As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. The criminal prosecution wasn't the only investigation of the Dookhan scandal. After graduating from Portsmouth High School, Farak attended the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she got a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry in 2000. Faraks notes also After her arrest, she received support from her parents, who showed up to her court appearances, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported. Yet Dookhan's brazen crimes went undetected for ages. According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Farak graduated with awards and distinctions. 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 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. Farak worked under the influence of drugs for nine years - from 2004 to 2013 - before she was caught. Her medical records included notes from Faraks therapist in Amherst, Anna Kogan. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. She was arrested in 2013 when the supervisor at the Amherst lab was made aware that two samples were missing. She tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the. Rollins said it covers "a period of time in which either now disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan, or another convicted chemist Sonja Farak ," worked there. Where Is Sonja Farak Now? Farak was getting high off the confiscated drugs police sent her way before replacing the evidence with fake drugs. She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. Kaczmarek wrote back. It was an astoundingly light touch for the second state chemist arrested in six months. "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. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. She had unrestricted access to the evidence room. They were found with their packaging sliced open and their contents apparently altered. (Netflix) A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. 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 . The Netflix docuseries ends by acknowledging that Farak received an 18-month sentence, and that defense attorney Luke Ryan was able . Please note that if your case has been identified for dismissal, it could take approximately 2-3 months for the relevant court records to be updated. The lawsuit names Kaczmarek, Farak and three members of the state police. As extensively detailed in How to Fix a Drug Scandal, Farak was arrested on January 19, 2013. As How to Fix a Drug Scandal explores, Farak had long struggled with her mental . 3.4.2023 8:00 AM, Reason Staff 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. She was trying to suppress mental health issues, depression in specific, and she attempted to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. 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. Deval Patrick's office didn't learn about the protocol breach until December 2011. Sonja Farak had admitted to stealing and using drugs from the drug lab where she worked as a chemist for around 9 years. 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. 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.". But Ryan, who represented Penate, suspected it was more extensive. Having barely investigated her, prosecutors indicted Farak only for the samples in her possession the day she was caught. Accessibility | When Farak was arrested,former Attorney General Martha Coakley told the public investigators believed Farak tampered with drugs at the lab for only a few months. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the Amherst lab in 2004. noted the mental health worksheets found in Faraks car, which had not been released. Where is Sonja now? ", Prosecutors maintained that Faraks rogue behavior spanned just a few months. You can check your records electronically by following this link: https://icori.chs.state.ma.us. Farak saw Kogan in 2009 and 2010, and her therapist wrote: She obtains the drugs from her job at the state drug lab, by taking portions of samples that have come in to be tested., Kogan also wrote that Farak told her she had taken methamphetamines at another lab in an old job, but she didnt get much from it. Kogan wrote that after moving to western [Massachusetts] for her job at the state drug lab, [Farak] tried it again and really liked it. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. 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. The Farak documents indicate she used drugs on the very day she certified samples as heroin in Penates case. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015. 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. 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. Though. 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. The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. 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. Gainey added that Healey is pleased with their conclusion that prosecutors and the state police acted appropriately. 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. In 2019, the chemist was spotted at federal court in Springfield, MA , attending a civil case. Below is an outline of her charges. A final decision is still pending and must be approved by the state Supreme Judicial Court. She started seeing a substance abuse therapist around this time. That motion was denied, and the notice letters will explain Farak's tampering without any mention of prosecutorial misconduct. This was not true, as Nassif's department later conceded. . The Hinton drug lab, operated by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, appears to have been run largely on the honor system. Yet 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. 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." The attorney general's officeKaczmarek or her supervisorscould have asked a judge to determine whether the worksheets were actually privileged, as Kaczmarek later acknowledged. 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." 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. When a Therapy Session starts, the software automatically creates a To-Do list item reminding users to create the relevant documentation. 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. She started smoking crack cocaine in 2011 and was soon using it 10 to 12 times a day. Even the master's degree on her rsum was fabricated. Farak was arrested the next day, and the attorney general's office assigned the case to Anne Kaczmarek. Listen Live: Classic and Contemporary Celtic, Listen Live: Cape, Coast and Islands NPR Station, Boston nonprofit Street2Ivy is producing this generation's entrepreneurs. The medical records stated that she did not have an existing drug problem that was amplified by her access to more substances. Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. 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. 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. ", In 2004, her first full year at the lab, Dookhan reported analyzing approximately 700 samples per month. This story is an effort to reconstruct what was known about Farak and Dookhan's crimes, and when, based on court filings, diaries, and interviews with the major players. In 2009, Farak branched out to the lab's amphetamine, phentermine, and cocaine standards. The defense bar had raised concerns that prosecutors might be "perceived as having a stake" in such an investigation. 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. ", Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. There is no allegation of misconduct against the local prosecutors who presented the case against Penate in Hampden County Superior Court. "Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. This is merely a fishing expedition, Foster wrote in As the state's top court put it, the criminal investigation into Farak was "cursory at best.". Coakley's office finally launched a criminal investigation in July 2012, more than a year after the infraction was discovered by Dookhan's supervisors. Faraks wife had her own mental health problems, and according to Rolling Stone, Farak would have conflict with her wife every night at home. ", But another co-worker was suspicious, particularly since he "never saw Dookhan in front of a microscope.". answered that the state considered the evidence irrelevant to any case other than Faraks.. Netflix released a new docu-series called "How to Fix a Drug Scandal." GBH News brings you the stories, local voices, and big ideas that shape our world. Farak signed a certification of drug samples in Penate's case on Dec. 22, 2011. 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. Exhausted from the ongoing scandal in Boston, state officials were desperate for damage control. But a crucial issue was not before the court. On a Friday afternoon in January 2013, a call came in to Coakley's office: "We have another Annie Dookhan out west.". His is one of what lawyers say could be thousands of convictions questioned in the wake of the Farak scandal. 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.". It declined Farak's offer of a detailed confession in exchange for leniency, nixing the offer without even negotiating terms. If they'd kept digging, defendants might still have learned the crucial facts. Shortly into her role at Amherst, Farak decided to try liquid methamphetamine to ease her personal struggles. 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. motion with Hampden Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Kinder to see the evidence for himself. Coakley did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. In an August 2013 email, Ryan asked Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster to review evidence taken from Farak. She was sentenced to 18 months in jail plus five years of probation. This very well could have been the end of the investigative trail but for a few stubborn defense lawyers, who appealed the ruling. And when defense attorneys tried to do it themselves, Coakley's office blocked their efforts. Thus, only defendants whose evidence she tested in the six-month window before her arrest could challenge their cases. The governor didn't appoint the inspector general or anyone else to determine how long Farak was altering samples or running analyses while high. Kaczmarek got a note from Sgt. The place was closed as soon as Faraks crimes came to light. But unlike with Dookhan, there were no independent investigations of Farak or the Amherst lab. State officials rushed to condemn her loudly and publicly. He also Many more are likely to follow, with the total expected to exceed 50,000. 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. 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. Process Notes/Psychotherapy Notes Process notes are sometimes also referred to as psychotherapy notesthey're the notes you take during or after a session. Kaczmarek argued the findings are subject to appeal. She started doing drugs almost as soon as she took the job at Amherst, but it was after years of negligence on her superiors part that her actions finally came to light. According to a newspaper article from 1992, she was the first female in Rhode Island to be on a high school football team. "These drugswere tested fairly," Coakley claimed the day after Farak's arrest. The latest true crime offering from Netflix is the documentary series "How to Fix a Drug Scandal." It dives into the story of Sonja Farak, a chemist who worked for a Massachusetts state drug. In the aftermath of Farak's arrest, it's been argued that because she was under the influence, all of the cases she tested could be considered to have been wrongfully convicted. 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. 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. She was sentenced in 2014 to 18 months in prison and 5 years of probation. 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. 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. "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.". Local prosecutors also remained in the dark. 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. A year later, in October 2014, prosecutors relented, granting access to the full evidence in Farak's case to attorney Luke Ryan. 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.". At some point, the attorney general's office stopped chasing leads entirely. Because she did so, Plaintiff served more than five years in a state prison.". 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. Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. Reporting for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Her access to evidence was not restricted, and she continued testifying in court. In November 2013, Dookhan pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, and perjury. That settlement awaits approval by a judge. Support GBH. 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. Velis said he stood by the findings. Meier put the number at 40,323 defendants, though some have called that an overestimate. The twin Massachusetts drug lab scandals are unprecedented in the sheer number of cases thrown out because of forensic misconduct. At this point, Farakunlike Dookhandidn't admit anything. Like Hinton, the Amherst lab had no cameras. Among other items, Kaczmarek "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. After weeks of hearings, a "special hearing officer" selected by the board recommended potential sanctions against them all. A hearing on their motions is scheduled next month. concluded there was no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct or obstruction of justice in matters related to the Farak case. Episode 2. With the lab's ample drug supply, she was able to sneak the drug each day from a jug that resided in the shared workspace. memo to Judge Kinder the next week, Foster said she reviewed the file, and said every document in it had already been disclosed. Soon after Dookhan's arrest, Coakley's office asked the governor to order a broader independent probe of the Hinton lab. Shawn Musgrave is a reporter who was until recently based in Boston. This threw every sample she had ever tested into question. Magistrate Judge Robertson denied a request in Penate's lawsuit that Kaczmarek be prohibited from contesting the special hearing officer's findings. Her wrongdoings were exposed when unsealed cocaine and a crack pipe were found under her desk. She recovered, made it through college and got a job as a chemist at the Amherst Crime Lab, where she tested confiscated drugs. "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. Farak started at Amherst lab in Aug 2004 p. 32. Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. In "How to Fix a Drug Scandal," a new four-part Netflix docuseries, documentary filmmaker Erin Lee Carr presents the stories of Massachusetts drug lab chemists Annie Dookhan and Sonja Farak, and . As he leafed through three boxes of evidence, he found the substance abuse worksheets and diaries. "No reasonablejury could conclude that this evidence is not favorable.". But she worried they might be privileged as health information. Our posture is to not delve into the twists and turns of the investigation or the report and to let it stand on its own, Merrigan said. 3.3.2023 4:50 PM, 2022 Reason Foundation | A Powerful EHR to Manage a Thriving Practice. In January 2014, she pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and drug possession. 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.". Sonja Farak in How to Fix a Drug Scandal. Defense attorneys had. State prosecutors hadnt provided this evidence to other district attorneys offices contending with the Farak fallout, either. 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. Disgraced drug lab chemist Sonja Farak emerges as her own attorney as defendant in $5.7 million federal lawsuit. 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. mentioned a New England Patriots game on Saturday, Dec. 24 which corresponded with a game date in 2011. denied Penates motion to dismiss the case, saying there was no evidence that Faraks misconduct extended to his case. The fact that she ran analyses while high and regularly dipped into samples casts doubt on thousands of convictions. The charges against Penate were dismissed after Farak's conviction. While Dookhan had tampered with evidence and indulged in dry-labbing, Farak stole from her workplace. Still, the state was acquiring evidence. shipped nearly 300 pages of previously undisclosed materials to local prosecutors around the state. Farak received a sentence of 18 months in jail and 5 years of probation. 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. A judge sentenced Dookhan to three years in prison; she was granted parole in April 2016. "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. On top of that, it was also ensured that no analyst would ever work without supervision. The next month, Ryan asked again. Out of "an abundance of caution," Kaczmarek didn't present them to the grand jury that was convened to determine whether to indict Farak. 2. 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. Kaczmarek had obtained the evidence at issue while she was prosecuting Farak on state charges of tampering with evidence and drug possession. Ryan then filed a ordered a report on the history of her illicit behavior. Foster's first stepper ethical obligations and office protocolshould have been to look through the evidence to see what had already been handed over.