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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. The defense bar had raised concerns that prosecutors might be "perceived as having a stake" in such an investigation. 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.. Reporting for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. A second unsealed report into allegations of wrongdoing by police and prosecutors who handled the Farak evidence, overseen by retired state judges Peter Velis and Thomas Merrigan, drew less attention. She said, It was about coping; it certainly wasnt about having fun; I dont think shes had fun in quite a while.. Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. The disgraced chemist was sentenced to less than two years behind bars in 2014, following her guilty pleas for stealing cocaine from the lab. "Because on almost a daily basis Farak abused narcoticsthere is no assurance that she was able to perform chemical analysis correctly," the judge found. 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. 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. "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. Here's Where Sonja Farak Is Now, After 'How to Fix a Drug Scandal' With the Dookhan case so fresh, reporters immediately labeled Farak "the second chemist. 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. This very well could have been the end of the investigative trail but for a few stubborn defense lawyers, who appealed the ruling. Support GBH. She was sentenced to 18 months in jail plus five years of probation. 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. Poetically, that landmark case originated from the Hinton lab, although Dookhan didn't conduct the analysis in question. This is merely a fishing expedition, Foster wrote in She had been accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress in addition to the conspiracy to violate [Penates] civil rights.. State chemist may have affected more drug cases than previously known The court decided to uphold a ruling dismissing charges against the defendant, a juvenile at the time of the alleged offense identified only as Washington W. The justices didnt name his prosecutor, David Omiunu, who was identified by The Eye from other court records. answered that the state considered the evidence irrelevant to any case other than Faraks.. Massachusetts crime lab scandal worsens: Dookhan and Farak. Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? | 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. 1. "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.". According to an Attorney General Offices report, Farak attended Temple University in Philadelphia for graduate school, which is where she became a recreational drug user. . The number is 888-999-2881. 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. Name. The defense bar also demanded answers on how such crucial evidence stayed buried for so long. Officials recognized the worksheets for what they were: near-indisputable confessions. He also 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. Fue arrestada el 19 de enero de 2013. 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. 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. But unlike with Dookhan, no one launched a bigger investigation of Farak. It's been like this forever, or at least since girlhood. shipped nearly 300 pages of previously undisclosed materials to local prosecutors around the state. 3.4.2023 8:00 AM, Reason Staff And both pose the obvious question about how chemists could behave so badly for years without detection. Local prosecutors also remained in the dark. Cleverly omitting pronouns, she wrote that "after reviewing" the file, "every documenthas been disclosed." After she was caught, Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the lab and was sentenced to prison time of 18 months. another filing. Farak signed a certification of drug samples in Penate's case on Dec. 22, 2011. The information showed that Farak sought therapy for drug addiction and that her misconduct had been ongoing for years. At some point, the attorney general's office stopped chasing leads entirely. Our streamlined software is accessible wherever and whenever you . The newest true crime series from Netflix, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, was released on April 1, 2020. It ultimately took a blatant violation to expose Dookhan, and even then her bosses twisted themselves in knots to hold on to their "super woman.". Between the two women, 47,000 drug convictions and guilty pleas have been dismissed in the last two years, many for misdemeanor possession. It included information about the type of drugs she tampered with. The attorney general's officeKaczmarek or her supervisorscould have asked a judge to determine whether the worksheets were actually privileged, as Kaczmarek later acknowledged. Episode 2. Both have since left the attorney general's office for other government positions. With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. 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. "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. Foster and another assistant attorney general assented to that motion. Kaczmarek quoted the worksheets in a memo to her supervisor, Verner, and others, summarizing that they revealed Farak's "struggle with substance abuse." "If she were suffering from back injurymaybe she took some oxys?" In 2009, Farak branched out to the lab's amphetamine, phentermine, and cocaine standards. The fact that she ran analyses while high and regularly dipped into samples casts doubt on thousands of convictions. Foster protested that portions of the evidentiary file in question might be privileged or not subject to disclosure. "These drugswere tested fairly," Coakley claimed the day after Farak's arrest. There is no allegation of misconduct against the local prosecutors who presented the case against Penate in Hampden County Superior Court. Dookhan was now spending less time at her lab bench and more time testifying in court about her results. A final decision is still pending and must be approved by the state Supreme Judicial Court. 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. Where Is Sonja Farak From 'How To Fix A Drug Scandal' Now? - Women's Health concluded there was no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct or obstruction of justice in matters related to the Farak case. Powered by. Sonja Farak Today: Where Is She Now? | Heavy.com 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. Shawn Musgrave is a reporter who was until recently based in Boston. Farak apparently still tested each caseunlike Annie Dookhan, another Massachusetts chemist who was arrested five months prior to Farak for fabricating test results. Two detectives found Farak at a courthouse waiting to testify on an unrelated matter. The lead prosecutor on Farak's case knew about the diaries, as did supervisors at the state attorney general's office. (Netflix) A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. 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. Thus, only defendants whose evidence she tested in the six-month window before her arrest could challenge their cases. A judge sentenced Dookhan to three years in prison; she was granted parole in April 2016. Investigators either missed or declined opportunities to dig very deep. Having barely investigated her, prosecutors indicted Farak only for the samples in her possession the day she was caught. Netflix's How to Fix a Drug Scandal: What Happened To Sonja Farak When grand jury materials were eventually released to defense attorneys, then, they did not mention that these documents existed. . And then the bigger investigation was going to be someone else.". Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Sonja Farak is the subject of Netflix's "How To Fix a Drug Scandal. In December 2011, after police in Springfield, Mass., had arrested Renaldo Penate for allegedly selling heroin, the drugs from that case were tested at a state drug lab by technician Sonja Farak. Before her sentencing, Farak failed a drug test while out on bail, according to Mass Live. 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. Disgraced drug lab chemist Sonja Farak emerges as her own attorney as defendant in $5.7 million federal lawsuit. Sonja Farak: Defendant Rafael Rodriguez died of drug overdose - MEAWW 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. His is one of what lawyers say could be thousands of convictions questioned in the wake of the Farak scandal. Follow us so you don't miss a thing! "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. It declined Farak's offer of a detailed confession in exchange for leniency, nixing the offer without even negotiating terms. Penate's suit said Kaczmarek withheld evidence that Farak used drugs at the lab for longer than the Massachusetts attorney general's office first claimed, and that he would not have been imprisoned based on tainted evidence. His email was one of more than 800 released with the Velis-Merrigan report. The court also dismissed all meth cases processed at the lab since Farak started in 2004. Farak. How to Fix a Drug Scandal is an American true crime documentary miniseries that was released on Netflix on April 1, 2020. Between 2005 and 2013, Sonja Farak was performing laboratory tests at a state drug lab in Amherst while under the influence of narcotics. "I remember actually sitting on the stand and looking at it," Farak said of her first time swiping from evidence in a trafficking case, "knowing that I had analyzed the sample and that I had then tampered with it.". The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Because of all that, it's no surprise that Farak was sent to prison in Massachusetts. 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.". Joseph Ballou, lead investigator for the state police, called them the most important documents from the car. denied Penates motion to dismiss the case, saying there was no evidence that Faraks misconduct extended to his case. They wrote that Lee, disabled by a stew of mental ailments, [spent] her hours surfing the Web in a haze.. When the Farak scandal erupted, that misconduct came into view. Even the master's degree on her rsum was fabricated. 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. (Featured Image Credit: Mass Live). Discipline recommended for former assistant attorneys - Masslive The governor didn't appoint the inspector general or anyone else to determine how long Farak was altering samples or running analyses while high. 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. February 2013 email, to which he attached the worksheets. Obviously, after a blunder of such scale, no one would want their samples checked from the same lab. Massachusetts drug lab scandal tied to Sonja Farak and Hinton Lab It was an astoundingly light touch for the second state chemist arrested in six months. Most important, they found seven worksheets from Farak's substance abuse therapy. "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. Because she did so, Plaintiff served more than five years in a state prison.". Episode 1. 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. Perhaps, as criminal justice scandals inevitably emerge, we need to get more independent eyes on the evidence from the start. As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. Her access to evidence was not restricted, and she continued testifying in court. compelled release of additional drug treatment records, which indicated Farak used a variety of drugs that she stole from the lab for years. Because state prosecutors hid Farak's substance abuse diaries, it took far too long for the full timeline of her crimes to become public. 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. She even made her own crack in the lab. Shown results suggesting otherwise, she copped to contaminating samples "a few times" during the previous "two to three years.". 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.". 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. The criminal prosecution wasn't the only investigation of the Dookhan scandal. State officials rushed to condemn her loudly and publicly. 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. The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. The Farak scandal came as the state grappled with another drug lab crisis. The new numbers appear in a report issued by a court-designated "Special Master." She was sentenced in 2014 to 18 months in prison and 5 years of probation. 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. The Amherst lab had called state police when the two missing samples were noticed in 2013. "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 the series, it's explained that Farak loved the energy the meth gave her. She was also testifying in court while high. This is the story of Farak's drug-induced wrongdoings, and it's the. At the time of Penates trial, the state Attorney Generals Office contended Faraks misdeeds dated back only as far as 2012. 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. 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. Farak signed Faraks notes also | Two weeks after Ryans discovery, the Attorney Generals Office Yet Dookhan's brazen crimes went undetected for ages. Sonja Farak. Faraks wife had her own mental health problems, and according to Rolling Stone, Farak would have conflict with her wife every night at home. Judge dismisses 'qualified immunity' claim in suit against ex - WBUR 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. For people with disabilities needing assistance with the Public Files, contact Glenn Heath at 617-300-3268. His report deemed Dookhan the "sole bad actor" at the lab, a finding that remains disputed in some circles. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. They were all rendered unacceptable. 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. 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. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. 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? Patrick said "the most important take-home" was that "no individual's due process rights were compromised.". Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. Her wrongdoings were exposed when unsealed cocaine and a crack pipe were found under her desk. Gov. She started smoking crack cocaine in 2011 and was soon using it 10 to 12 times a day. The staff in the new lab was also doubled, and the number of trainees was also increased. 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. In 2014, former Amherst drug lab chemist Sonja Farak was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison after it was discovered that she stole and used drugs that she was entrusted to test. Why Won't Maryland Sell Me a Goddamn Beer? "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 not only led to people getting a reprieve from prison but also filing their own lawsuits against the injustice they had to suffer. 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. He emailed them to Kaczmareksubject: "FARAK Admissions." 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. 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. ", But another co-worker was suspicious, particularly since he "never saw Dookhan in front of a microscope.". Without access to the diaries, the Springfield judge in 2013 found that Farak had starting stealing from samples in summer 2012. Join us. Kaczmarek is one of three former prosecutors whose role in the prosecution of Farak later became the focus of several lawsuits and disciplinary hearings. She had never quashed a subpoena before, but supervisors told her to fend off motions about Farak. Who Is Sonja Farak From Netflix's 'How to Fix a Drug Scandal'? | True If chemists had to testify in person, Coakley warned melodramatically, misdemeanor drug prosecutions "would essentially grind to a halt. Talking Politics: Should a new government agency protect the coastline from climate change? 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. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the lab. 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. When defense lawyers asked to see evidence for themselves, state prosecutors smeared them as pursuing a "fishing expedition.". Watch How to Fix a Drug Scandal | Netflix Official Site But why were a small handful of prosecutors allowed total control over evidence about one of the worst criminal justice failures in recent memory? On top of that, it was also ensured that no analyst would ever work without supervision. Listen Live: Classic and Contemporary Celtic, Listen Live: Cape, Coast and Islands NPR Station, Boston nonprofit Street2Ivy is producing this generation's entrepreneurs. 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 . Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. 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. But Ryan, who represented Penate, suspected it was more extensive. 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. 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. Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. 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. Former chemist Annie Dookhan was convicted in 2013 on charges of improperly testing drug evidence at a drug lab in Boston. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. Relying on an investigation conducted by state police, the judges One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. Sonja Farak: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com Farak admitted to being on a list of drugs while working between 2004 and her 2013 arrest. One colleague called her the "super woman of the lab. As Solotaroff recounts in detail, Massachusetts attorney Luke Ryan represented two people who were accused of drug charges that Farak had analyzed . 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. 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. Many more are likely to follow, with the total expected to exceed 50,000. 2. This threw every sample she had ever tested into question. Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. Damning evidence reveals drug lab chemist Sonja Farak's addictions. 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. Sonja Farak was a chemist for a state crime lab in Massachusetts. How to write better therapy progress notes: 10 examples memo to Judge Kinder the next week, Foster said she reviewed the file, and said every document in it had already been disclosed. A status hearing on Penate's suit, which was filed in 2017, is scheduled for July. Her role was to test for the presence of illegal substances, which could be instrumental in thousands of . As Kaczmarek herself later observed, Farak essentially had "a drugstore at her disposal" from her first day at the Amherst lab. A Powerful EHR to Manage a Thriving Practice. | In a March 2013 Regarding the cases that she had handled, the Massachusetts courts threw out every case in the Amherst lab during her tenure. She had unrestricted access to the evidence room. Sonja Farak was a chemist at a state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 2005 to 2013. In Sonja Farak drug lab scandal, Mass - The Washington Post During the next four years, she would periodically sober up and then relapse. Martha Coakley, then attorney general for the state, argued in Melendez-Diaz that a chemist's certificate contains only "neutral, objective facts."