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. Farak wasn't the first Massachusetts chemist to tamper with drug evidence. To multiple courts' amazement, her incessant drug use never caught the attention of her co-workers. Where is Sonja now? Where Is Sonja Farak From Netflix's 'Drug Scandal' Doc Now? Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. "We shouldn't be in the position of having to be saying, 'Don't close your eyes to the duration and scope of misconduct that may affect a whole lot of cases,'" the exasperated Massachusetts chief justice told prosecutors during oral arguments. 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." Gainey added that Healey is pleased with their conclusion that prosecutors and the state police acted appropriately. Applying Routine Activity Theory: A Case Study of the Sonya Farak Drug 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. 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. With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. 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. Defense attorneys say withheld Farak notes implicate prosecutors - News The newest true crime series from Netflix, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, was released on April 1, 2020. During her trial, her defense lawyer Elaine Pourinski said that Farak wasnt taking drugs to party, but instead to control her depression. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. 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. "As the gatekeeper to this evidence, she failed to turn over documents, and she adamantly opposed the requests for access. Shown results suggesting otherwise, she copped to contaminating samples "a few times" during the previous "two to three years.". How To Write Therapy Progress Notes: 8 Templates & Examples - Quenza Where Is Sonja Farak From 'How To Fix A Drug Scandal' Now? - Women's Health State police took these worksheets from Farak's car in January 2013, the same day they arrested her for tampering with evidence and for cocaine possession. She started smoking crack cocaine in 2011 and was soon using it 10 to 12 times a day. Officials recognized the worksheets for what they were: near-indisputable confessions. 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? The Hinton drug lab, operated by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, appears to have been run largely on the honor system. Who Is Sonja Farak From Netflix's 'How to Fix a Drug Scandal'? | True 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. Many more are likely to follow, with the total expected to exceed 50,000. Perhaps, as criminal justice scandals inevitably emerge, we need to get more independent eyes on the evidence from the start. 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. She tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. 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. 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. Damning evidence reveals drug lab chemist Sonja Farak's addictions. Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. Shortly into her role at Amherst, Farak decided to try liquid methamphetamine to ease her personal struggles. 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. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. Release year: 2020. In January 2014, she pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and drug possession. The staff in the new lab was also doubled, and the number of trainees was also increased. Why Won't Maryland Sell Me a Goddamn Beer? wrote she "tried to resist using @ work, but ended up failing." 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. Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. Where is Sonja Farak from How To Fix A Drug Scandal now? Coakley assigned the case against Dookhan to Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek and her supervisor, John Verner. After serving just a year of her 18 month sentence, Farak was released from prison in 2015. Chemist was high at work for 8 years: court docs - CBS News . 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.". She was sentenced in 2014 to 18 months in prison and 5 years of probation. 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." Penate argued the court should follow those findings. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Sonja Farak is the subject of Netflix's "How To Fix a Drug Scandal. 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. 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. She soon crossed all these lines. It didnt matter whether or not she was the one who did the testing or some other chemist. The Dookhan prosecution was barely underway, a grand jury having returned indictments a few weeks earlier. Fortunately, the courts largely ignored this shallow investigation. Investigators found that Sonja Farak tested drug samples and testified in court while under the influence of methamphetamines, ketamine, cocaine, LSD and other drugs between 2005 and 2013. Sonja Farak: Defendant Rafael Rodriguez died of drug overdose - MEAWW 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. State prosecutors gave Farak the immunity they had declined to grant two years earlier, then asked when she started analyzing samples while high. ", The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. 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. High Massachusetts Lab Chemist Causes Thousands Of Drug Cases To Be Dismissed. 3.3.2023 5:30 PM, Joe Lancaster Fue arrestada el 19 de enero de 2013. 1. She had been accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress in addition to the conspiracy to violate [Penates] civil rights.. The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. 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. After the Supreme Court's decision, a skeptical colleague started tracking how many microscope slides Dookhan used to test samples for cocaine. One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. 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. Yet Dookhan's brazen crimes went undetected for ages. State chemist may have affected more drug cases than previously known But in 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. ", Prosecutors nationwide pretty uniformly backed this argument, which the Supreme Court rejected in a 54 opinion. Who is Sonja Farak? Listen Live: Classic and Contemporary Celtic, Listen Live: Cape, Coast and Islands NPR Station, Boston nonprofit Street2Ivy is producing this generation's entrepreneurs. Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. She was sentenced to 18 months in jail plus five years of probation. ", In 2004, her first full year at the lab, Dookhan reported analyzing approximately 700 samples per month. Commonwealth v. Cotto | ACLU Massachusetts 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. Foster "No reasonablejury could conclude that this evidence is not favorable.". In 2017, a different judge ruled that Foster's actions constituted a "fraud upon the court," calling the letter "deliberately misleading." Disgraced drug lab chemist Sonja Farak emerges as her own attorney as defendant in $5.7 million federal lawsuit. He recommended she lose her law license for two years; the Office of Bar Counsel later argued Kaczmarek should be disbarred. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. Farak signed a certification of drug samples in Penate's case on Dec. 22, 2011. In court, she added that there was "no smoking gun" in the evidence. They were found with their packaging sliced open and their contents apparently altered. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. 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. Farak was arrested the next day, and the attorney general's office assigned the case to Anne Kaczmarek. 3.3.2023 4:50 PM, 2022 Reason Foundation | She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. Shawn Musgrave Investigators either missed or declined opportunities to dig very deep. 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. MA: A reckoning for prosecutors in drug lab scandal? - NADDI How to write better therapy progress notes: 10 examples Accessibility | Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. Without access to the diaries, the Springfield judge in 2013 found that Farak had starting stealing from samples in summer 2012. 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. 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. Two detectives found Farak at a courthouse waiting to testify on an unrelated matter. TherapyNotes. | In a March 2013 The Netflix docuseries ends by acknowledging that Farak received an 18-month sentence, and that defense attorney Luke Ryan was able . During the next four years, she would periodically sober up and then relapse. Kaczmarek, along with former assistant attorneys general Kris Foster and John Verner, all face possible sanctions. Support GBH. "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. That motion was denied, and the notice letters will explain Farak's tampering without any mention of prosecutorial misconduct. 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. Relying on an investigation conducted by state police, the judges 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.". "It is critical that all parties have unquestioned faith in that process from the beginning so that they will have full confidence in the conclusions drawn at the end," Coakley said. He was floored when he found the worksheets. Magistrate Judge Robertson denied a request in Penate's lawsuit that Kaczmarek be prohibited from contesting the special hearing officer's findings. Despite her status as a free woman (who has seemingly disappeared from the public eye), Farak's wrongdoings continue to make waves in the Massachusetts courts. As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. Why did she do that and where has it left her? Sonja Farak: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com 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. "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. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. The fact that she ran analyses while high and regularly dipped into samples casts doubt on thousands of convictions. 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 fall 2013, a Springfield, Massachusetts, judge convened hearings with the explicit aim of establishing "the timing and scope" of Farak's "alleged criminal conduct.". Without even interviewing Foster, they determined there was "no evidence" of obstruction of justice by her, by Kaczmarek, or by any state prosecutor. Netflix released a new docu-series called "How to Fix a Drug Scandal." concluded there was no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct or obstruction of justice in matters related to the Farak case. State prosecutors hadnt provided this evidence to other district attorneys offices contending with the Farak fallout, either. 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 . But she insisted the drugs didn't compromise her worka belief that one judge would aptly declare "belies logic.". The judge ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys to coordinate on identifying undisclosed emails related to documents seized from the disgraced state crime lab chemist. He didn't buy her quibbling that there's a difference between an explicit lie and obfuscation by grammar. 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. 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. (Conveniently, they also found a Patriots schedule from 2011 in the car.). | "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. As How to Fix a Drug Scandal explores, Farak had long struggled with her mental . 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. Between 2005 and 2013, Sonja Farak was performing laboratory tests at a state drug lab in Amherst while under the influence of narcotics. Local prosecutors also remained in the dark. Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. The Board of Bar Overseers (BBO) is reviewing the actions of three prosecutors in the investigation of the scandal to determine whether any of them deliberately withheld potentially exculpatory evidence. 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. Coakley's office finally launched a criminal investigation in July 2012, more than a year after the infraction was discovered by Dookhan's supervisors. But why were a small handful of prosecutors allowed total control over evidence about one of the worst criminal justice failures in recent memory? Faraks notes also In an August 2013 email, Ryan asked Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster to review evidence taken from Farak. 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. 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." (Netflix) A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. Meier put the number at 40,323 defendants, though some have called that an overestimate. | Farak received a sentence of 18 months in jail and 5 years of probation. The place was closed as soon as Faraks crimes came to light. Gov. 2. Farak apparently still tested each caseunlike Annie Dookhan, another Massachusetts chemist who was arrested five months prior to Farak for fabricating test results. When the Farak scandal erupted, that misconduct came into view. . The report "First, of course, are the defendants, who when charged in the criminal justice system have the right to expect that they will be given due process and there will be fair and accurate information used in any prosecution against them." A status hearing on Penate's suit, which was filed in 2017, is scheduled for July. Because of all that, it's no surprise that Farak was sent to prison in Massachusetts. 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. 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. 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. The Amherst lab had called state police when the two missing samples were noticed in 2013. ", Prosecutors maintained that Faraks rogue behavior spanned just a few months. The court also dismissed all meth cases processed at the lab since Farak started in 2004. "No reasonable individual could have failed to appreciate the unlawfulness of [Kaczmarek's] actions in these circumstances," Robertson wrote in her ruling. Farak. After contemplating another suicide, she settled on drugs, and the fact that she had such easy access to it at her workplace made it easier for her to get lost in that world. Sonja Farak. Nassif considered it a lapse in judgment, but not a disqualifying one; Nassif's boss didn't think it necessary to alert the prosecutors whose cases relied on the samples, much less the defendants. Patrick said "the most important take-home" was that "no individual's due process rights were compromised.". Deval Patrick's office didn't learn about the protocol breach until December 2011. But without access to evidence showing how long Farak had been doing this, defendants with constitutional grounds for challenging their incarceration were held for months and even years longer than necessary. A. 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. Approximately one year later, she pled guilty to tampering with evidence, unlawful possession, and stealing narcotics. 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 . If Farak found a substance was a true drug, the person it was confiscated from could be convicted of a substance-related crime. A hearing on their motions is scheduled next month. 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. And when defense attorneys tried to do it themselves, Coakley's office blocked their efforts. He also Kaczmarek quoted the worksheets in a memo to her supervisor, Verner, and others, summarizing that they revealed Farak's "struggle with substance abuse." Rollins said it covers "a period of time in which either now disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan, or another convicted chemist Sonja Farak ," worked there. "It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents," Ryan wrote to the attorney general's office. Verner, who testified that he didn't "micromanage" Kaczmarek, escaped criticism. Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline. Since her release, she has kept a low profile and managed to stay out of the public . In worksheet notes dated Thursday, Dec. 22, Farak Penate was convicted in December 2013 and sentenced to serve five to seven years. This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the Amherst lab in 2004. 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. 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.