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After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. 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. Without access to the diaries, the Springfield judge in 2013 found that Farak had starting stealing from samples in summer 2012. Reporting for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. "I dont know how the Velis report reached the conclusion it did after reviewing the underlying email documents, said Randy Gioia, deputy chief counsel at the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the states public defender office. . 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 . This article originally appeared in print under the headline "The Chemists and the Cover-Up". 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. Magistrate Judge Robertson denied a request in Penate's lawsuit that Kaczmarek be prohibited from contesting the special hearing officer's findings. 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. Because of all that, it's no surprise that Farak was sent to prison in Massachusetts. Exhausted from the ongoing scandal in Boston, state officials were desperate for damage control. She's no longer in prison, as Farak has served her sentence. ", But another co-worker was suspicious, particularly since he "never saw Dookhan in front of a microscope.". 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. Regarding the cases that she had handled, the Massachusetts courts threw out every case in the Amherst lab during her tenure. shipped nearly 300 pages of previously undisclosed materials to local prosecutors around the state. "I was totally controlled by my addiction," Farak later testified. Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. The information showed that Farak sought therapy for drug addiction and that her misconduct had been ongoing for years. 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. Asked for comment, Foster in January objected through an attorney that the judge never gave her an opportunity to defend herself and that his ruling left an "indelible stain on her reputation.". The justices ordered Healey's department to cover all costs of notifying all defendants whose cases were dismissed. 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. This is merely a fishing expedition, Foster wrote in (Netflix) A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. On top of that, it was also ensured that no analyst would ever work without supervision. Farak apparently still tested each caseunlike Annie Dookhan, another Massachusetts chemist who was arrested five months prior to Farak for fabricating test results. She received the American Institute of Chemists Award in her final year as well as a Crimson and Gray Award from the school a year before, which recognized her dedication, commitment and unselfishness in the enrichment of student life at WPI. A Rolling Stone piece on Farak also indicated that she graduated with high distinction from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Given the account that Farak was a law-abiding citizen, it is questioned as to how an 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. 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. 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. 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. The story of the intertwining Farak and Penate evidence began in January 2013, when state police arrested Farak and searched her car. Accessibility | ", Prosecutors nationwide pretty uniformly backed this argument, which the Supreme Court rejected in a 54 opinion. noted the mental health worksheets found in Faraks car, which had not been released. Though. He recommended she lose her law license for two years; the Office of Bar Counsel later argued Kaczmarek should be disbarred. Before her sentencing, Farak failed a drug test while out on bail, according to Mass Live. Like Hinton, the Amherst lab had no cameras. Instead, Kaczmarek proceeded as if the substance abuse was a recent development. Farak trabaj en el laboratorio Amherst desde el verano de 2004 y poco despus comenz a tomar las drogas del laboratorio. Sonja Farak was a chemist for a state crime lab in Massachusetts. A. Coakley's office finally launched a criminal investigation in July 2012, more than a year after the infraction was discovered by Dookhan's supervisors. Without even interviewing Foster, they determined there was "no evidence" of obstruction of justice by her, by Kaczmarek, or by any state prosecutor. Her job consisted of testing drugs that have. Psychotherapy Progress Notes, as shown above, can be populated using clinical codes before they are linked with a client's appointments for easier admin and use in sessions. 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. 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 . "The need to inform defendants of government misconduct does not disappear when that misconduct was committed by a government lawyer as opposed to a government chemist.". The disgraced chemist was sentenced to less than two years behind bars in 2014, following her guilty pleas for stealing cocaine from the lab. A final decision is still pending and must be approved by the state Supreme Judicial Court. Because she did so, Plaintiff served more than five years in a state prison.". As federal food benefits decline, Mass. It was. wrote to the Attorney Generals Office two days later. They were all rendered unacceptable. It took another three years for the truth to emerge. Kaczmarek had obtained the evidence at issue while she was prosecuting Farak on state charges of tampering with evidence and drug possession. What Did Sonja Farak Do, Exactly? Sonja Farak worked as a chemist for the state of Massachusetts, specializing in identifying illegal substances. Listen Live: Classic and Contemporary Celtic, Listen Live: Cape, Coast and Islands NPR Station, Boston nonprofit Street2Ivy is producing this generation's entrepreneurs. 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. 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. "The gravity of the present case cannot be overstated," Kaczmarek wrote in her memo recommending a prison sentence of five to seven years. This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the. Both have since left the attorney general's office for other government positions. It contained substances often used to make counterfeit cocaine, including soap, baking soda, candle wax, and modeling clay, plus lab dishes, wax paper, and fragments of a crack pipe. another filing. In a letter filed with the Supreme Court, Julianne Nassif, a lab supervisor, wrote that Hinton had "appropriate quality control" measures. It's been like this forever, or at least since girlhood. I felt euphoric, Kogan wrote of Farak. One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. Several defense attorneys who called for the Velis-Merrigan investigation say the former judges and their state police investigators got it wrong. 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. A local prosecutor also asked Ballou to look into a case Farak had tested as far back as 2005. 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. Fue arrestada el 19 de enero de 2013. 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. Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. They wrote that Lee, disabled by a stew of mental ailments, [spent] her hours surfing the Web in a haze.. Defense attorneys had. As he leafed through three boxes of evidence, he found the substance abuse worksheets and diaries. Between 2005 and 2013, Sonja Farak was performing laboratory tests at a state drug lab in Amherst while under the influence of narcotics. . And yet, due to their actions, they did injure people and they did inflict a lot of pain, not just on a couple of people, but on thousands. That settlement awaits approval by a judge. "These drugswere tested fairly," Coakley claimed the day after Farak's arrest. Yet Dookhan's brazen crimes went undetected for ages. In worksheet notes dated Thursday, Dec. 22, Farak Approximately one year later, she pled guilty to tampering with evidence, unlawful possession, and stealing narcotics. After weeks of hearings, a "special hearing officer" selected by the board recommended potential sanctions against them all. 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. 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. 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 . And when the tests she did run came back negative, Dookhan added controlled substances to the vials. 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. Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline. Farak received a sentence of 18 months in jail and 5 years of probation. Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. "he didn't request a warrant. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. 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. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. 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. Prosecutors have an obligation to give the defense exculpatory evidence including anything that could weaken evidence against defendants. Sonja Farak. Farak admitted in testimony that she began using drugs almost as soon as she started working at the Massachusetts State Crime Lab in Amherst. "As the gatekeeper to this evidence, she failed to turn over documents, and she adamantly opposed the requests for access. 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. At some point, the attorney general's office stopped chasing leads entirely. Martha Coakley, then attorney general for the state, argued in Melendez-Diaz that a chemist's certificate contains only "neutral, objective facts." Farak as a young. Penate argued the court should follow those findings. TherapyNotes is a complete practice management system with everything you need to manage patient records, schedule appointments, meet with patients remotely, create rich documentation, and bill insurance, right at your fingertips. 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. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. 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. 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. food banks expect a surge, As streaming services boom, cable TV continues its decline. Although the year she wrote the notes wasnt listed on the worksheet, in the six years prior to her arrest, 2011 is the only year in which Dec. 22 fell on a Thursday. Faraks therapist, Anna Kogan, wrote in her notes that Farak was worried about Nikki finding out about her addiction as well as the possible legal issues if she were ever caught. Where is Sonja now? 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.". At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. The cocaine, found in an unsealed, completed drug-testing kit, tested negativemeaning Farak had seemingly replaced the formerly "positive" drugs with falsified substances. 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. You can check your records electronically by following this link: https://icori.chs.state.ma.us. Shown results suggesting otherwise, she copped to contaminating samples "a few times" during the previous "two to three years.". Kaczmarek got a note from Sgt. At the time of Penates trial, the state Attorney Generals Office contended Faraks misdeeds dated back only as far as 2012. Per her own court testimony, as shown in the docu-series, Farak started working at a state drug lab in Amherst in 2004. compelled release of additional drug treatment records, which indicated Farak used a variety of drugs that she stole from the lab for years. Farak. Lets find out. Maybe it's not a matter of checklists or reminders that prosecutors have to keep their eyes open for improprieties. Join us. In an August 2013 email, Ryan asked Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster to review evidence taken from Farak. 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.". The attorney general's representative at these hearings was Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster, a recent hire. She was trying to suppress mental health issues, depression in specific, and she attempted to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Scalia may as well have been describing Dookhan. (Featured Image Credit: Mass Live). Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at GBH, Transparency in Coverage Cost-Sharing Disclosures. During the next four years, she would periodically sober up and then relapse. Kaczmarek quoted the worksheets in a memo to her supervisor, Verner, and others, summarizing that they revealed Farak's "struggle with substance abuse." And then the bigger investigation was going to be someone else.". "Because on almost a daily basis Farak abused narcoticsthere is no assurance that she was able to perform chemical analysis correctly," the judge found. "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. 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.. 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. The medical records stated that she did not have an existing drug problem that was amplified by her access to more substances. She tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. "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. 1. 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. 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. ", Officials rushed to downplay the situation in Amherst. After she was caught, Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the lab and was sentenced to prison time of 18 months. Follow us so you don't miss a thing! 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. "It was almost like Dookhan wanted to get caught," one of her former co-workers told state police in 2012. Penate alleged Kaczmarek's actions violated his "Brady rights," which require prosecutors to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. YouTube Farak worked under the influence of drugs for nine years - from 2004 to 2013 - before she was caught. But she insisted the drugs didn't compromise her worka belief that one judge would aptly declare "belies logic.". But why were a small handful of prosecutors allowed total control over evidence about one of the worst criminal justice failures in recent memory? The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. 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. May 2003 started working in Hinton drug lab p. 14. The state and attorneys for some of the defendants agreed to a $14 million settlement to reimburse 31,000 defendants for post conviction-related costs, such as probation and parole fees, drug analysis and GPS monitoring. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015. 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.". February 2013 email, to which he attached the worksheets. As . Farak struggled with mental health throughout her life, the documentary series explains. Her role was to test for the presence of illegal substances, which could be instrumental in thousands of . 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. Why Won't Maryland Sell Me a Goddamn Beer? Two weeks after Ryans discovery, the Attorney Generals Office But whether anyone investigated her conduct during a brief stint working at the state's Boston drug lab is at . a certification of drug samples in Penates case on Dec. 22, 2011. ", In 2004, her first full year at the lab, Dookhan reported analyzing approximately 700 samples per month. 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 wasn't the first Massachusetts chemist to tamper with drug evidence. The Netflix docuseries ends by acknowledging that Farak received an 18-month sentence, and that defense attorney Luke Ryan was able . To multiple courts' amazement, her incessant drug use never caught the attention of her co-workers. 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. 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. His is one of what lawyers say could be thousands of convictions questioned in the wake of the Farak scandal. 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 Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. 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." Four months after Ryan found the worksheets, Judge Kinder Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? 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 evidence to cover up her tracks. Thank you! "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.". Her ar-rest led to the dismissal of thousands of drug cases in Massachusetts. 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. In the series, it's explained that Farak loved the energy the meth gave her. From 2004 to 2013, Farak took advantage of . Most important, they found seven worksheets from Farak's substance abuse therapy. 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. Farak started at Amherst lab in Aug 2004 p. 32. Process Notes/Psychotherapy Notes Process notes are sometimes also referred to as psychotherapy notesthey're the notes you take during or after a session. The report Instead, she submitted an intentionally vague letter to the judge claiming defense attorneys already had everything. He emailed them to Kaczmareksubject: "FARAK Admissions." "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. 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. Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. The newest true crime series from Netflix, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, was released on April 1, 2020. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. 3.4.2023 8:00 AM, Reason Staff "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. 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. Gov. 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? Support GBH. The court also dismissed all meth cases processed at the lab since Farak started in 2004. She had never quashed a subpoena before, but supervisors told her to fend off motions about Farak. 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. We couldn't do it without you. 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. Since the takeover, the budget for all forensic labs across the state has been increased, by around twenty-five per cent. 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. Obviously, after a blunder of such scale, no one would want their samples checked from the same lab. Among other items, Kaczmarek A year later, in October 2014, prosecutors relented, granting access to the full evidence in Farak's case to attorney Luke Ryan. . motion on behalf of another client to see the evidence. She was also under the influence when she took the stand during her trial. Foster's first stepper ethical obligations and office protocolshould have been to look through the evidence to see what had already been handed over. One of the reasons for the decrepit state and standard of the Amherst lab was the lack of funds. Her reporting focuses on mental health, criminal justice and education. 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. In the aftermath, the court felt it necessary to make clear that "no prosecutorhas the authority to decline to disclose exculpatory information.". 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. Farak admitted to being on a list of drugs while working between 2004 and her 2013 arrest. Since her release, she has kept a low profile and managed to stay out of the public . Months after Farak pleaded guilty in January 2014, Ryan filed a In fall 2012, just five months before her arrest, Annie Dookhan confessed to faking analyses and altering samples in the Boston testing facility where she worked.