Dookhan was now spending less time at her lab bench and more time testifying in court about her results. The Dookhan prosecution was barely underway, a grand jury having returned indictments a few weeks earlier. Process Notes/Psychotherapy Notes Process notes are sometimes also referred to as psychotherapy notesthey're the notes you take during or after a session. Emma Camp (Featured Image Credit: Mass Live). 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. She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. concluded she was usually high while working in the lab for more than eight years before her arrest in January 2013 and started stealing samples seven years ago. At some point, the attorney general's office stopped chasing leads entirely. (Conveniently, they also found a Patriots schedule from 2011 in the car.). She started smoking crack cocaine in 2011 and was soon using it 10 to 12 times a day. 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. He didn't buy her quibbling that there's a difference between an explicit lie and obfuscation by grammar. She started seeing a substance abuse therapist around this time. Between Farak and Dookhanwho's also featured in How to Fix a Drug Scandal38,000 wrongfully convicted cases have been dismissed, according to the Washington Post. Sgt. 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. Inwardly though, Sonja Farak was striving. A. 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. She grew up in Portsmouth with her sister Amy. This immediately provoked questions about the thousands of cases in which her findings had contributed to the imprisonment of an individual. 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. Her job consisted of testing drugs that have. Accessibility | 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. After serving just a year of her 18 month sentence, Farak was released from prison in 2015. Here are those forms with the admissions of drug use I was talking about," a state police sergeant wrote to Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek, who led Faraks prosecution, in a Foster's first stepper ethical obligations and office protocolshould have been to look through the evidence to see what had already been handed over. 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. 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. ", Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Scott Allen. "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. Farak trabaj en el laboratorio Amherst desde el verano de 2004 y poco despus comenz a tomar las drogas del laboratorio. Maybe it's not a matter of checklists or reminders that prosecutors have to keep their eyes open for improprieties. 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. Follow us so you don't miss a thing! After the Supreme Court's decision, a skeptical colleague started tracking how many microscope slides Dookhan used to test samples for cocaine. It was an astoundingly light touch for the second state chemist arrested in six months. "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. (Netflix) A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. 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. Penate argued the court should follow those findings. Faraks wife had her own mental health problems, and according to Rolling Stone, Farak would have conflict with her wife every night at home. Given the account that Farak was a law-abiding citizen, it is questioned as to how an Sonja Farak, who worked as a chemist at the Amherst drug lab since 2004, was arrested in January 2013 after one of her co-workers noticed samples were missing from evidence. Instead, she submitted an intentionally vague letter to the judge claiming defense attorneys already had everything. What Did Sonja Farak Do, Exactly? Meier put the number at 40,323 defendants, though some have called that an overestimate. Farak was released from prison in 2015 and has kept a low profile since. memo, Kaczmarek told her supervisors that "Farak's admissions on her 'emotional worksheets' recovered from her car detail her struggle with substance abuse. Privacy Policy | Who is Sonja Farak? 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." The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. Her role was to test for the presence of illegal substances, which could be instrumental in thousands of . 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. Foster consulted Kaczmarek about the files contents, according to an Months after Farak pleaded guilty in January 2014, Ryan filed a 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 had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the Amherst lab in 2004. In an August 2013 email, Ryan asked Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster to review evidence taken from Farak. 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. The report 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. She's no longer in prison, as Farak has served her sentence. A judge sentenced Dookhan to three years in prison; she was granted parole in April 2016. "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. Our streamlined software is accessible wherever and whenever you . Kaczmarek argued the findings are subject to appeal. A final decision is still pending and must be approved by the state Supreme Judicial Court. Support GBH. Because state prosecutors hid Farak's substance abuse diaries, it took far too long for the full timeline of her crimes to become public. 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. 1. 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. A hearing on their motions is scheduled next month. 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. Prosecutors have an obligation to give the defense exculpatory evidence including anything that could weaken evidence against defendants. In 2009, Farak branched out to the lab's amphetamine, phentermine, and cocaine standards. memo to Judge Kinder the next week, Foster said she reviewed the file, and said every document in it had already been disclosed. 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. 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. Ryan finally viewed the file in the attorney generals offices in October 2014. Two weeks after Ryans discovery, the Attorney Generals Office Robertson rejected Kaczmarek's claims she should not be held responsible for the turning over of exculpatory evidence because she was not part of the "prosecution team" in Penate's case. Her ar-rest led to the dismissal of thousands of drug cases in Massachusetts. "he didn't request a warrant. Farak as a young. Its unclear if Farak is still with Lee, as they have both remained out of the public eye since the case. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the lab. In November 2013, Dookhan pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, and perjury. As Kaczmarek herself later observed, Farak essentially had "a drugstore at her disposal" from her first day at the Amherst 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. 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. Kaczmarek quoted the worksheets in a memo to her supervisor, Verner, and others, summarizing that they revealed Farak's "struggle with substance abuse." 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. "As the gatekeeper to this evidence, she failed to turn over documents, and she adamantly opposed the requests for access. This threw every sample she had ever tested into question. Fortunately, the courts largely ignored this shallow investigation. She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. Thanks to Farak's testimony and those diary worksheets, we now know that, soon after joining the Amherst lab in 2004, Farak started skimming from the methamphetamine "standard," an undiluted oil used as a reference against which suspected meth samples are compared. Deval Patrick's office didn't learn about the protocol breach until December 2011. Coakley did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. 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. She also starting dipping into police-submitted samples, a "whole other level of morality," as Farak called it during a fall 2015 special grand jury session. On another worksheet chronicling her struggle not to use, she described 12 of the next 13 samples assigned to her for testing as "urge-ful.". 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. 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. | wrote she "tried to resist using @ work, but ended up failing." At least 11,000 cases have already been dismissed due to fallout from the scandal, with thousands more likely to come. email highlighted in the Velis-Merrigan report. 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. 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? Judge Kinder ordered her to produce all potentially privileged documents for his review to determine whether they could be disclosed. Per her own court testimony, as shown in the docu-series, Farak started working at a state drug lab in Amherst in 2004. 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. Verner, who testified that he didn't "micromanage" Kaczmarek, escaped criticism. Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? Martha Coakley, then attorney general for the state, argued in Melendez-Diaz that a chemist's certificate contains only "neutral, objective facts." Both scandals undercut confidence in the criminal justice system and the validity of forensic analysis. Where is Sonja now? 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 . 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. She had never quashed a subpoena before, but supervisors told her to fend off motions about Farak. Carr weaves Farak's story into that of another Massachusetts chemist, Annie Dookhan, who worked across the state at the Hinton drug lab in Boston. . Foster replied that because the investigation against Farak was ongoing, she couldnt let him see it. "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. 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. 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. ", The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. 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 Amherst Bulletin reported that her medical records indicated that she only became addicted to drugs once she started working at the lab, in 2004. It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. But a crucial issue was not before the court. ordered a report on the history of her illicit behavior. 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. 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. She was struggling to suppress mental health issues, depression in particular, and she tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. 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. While Dookhan had tampered with evidence and indulged in dry-labbing, Farak stole from her workplace. ", Officials rushed to downplay the situation in Amherst. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at GBH, Transparency in Coverage Cost-Sharing Disclosures. Kaczmarek wrote back. Because of all that, it's no surprise that Farak was sent to prison in Massachusetts. She played as the starting guard for Portsmouth High Schools freshman team. In 2019, she was seen leaving the Springfield Federal Court but declined to comment on the status of the case. Farak received a sentence of 18 months in jail and 5 years of probation. I felt euphoric, Kogan wrote of Farak. Farak started at Amherst lab in Aug 2004 p. 32. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. Officials recognized the worksheets for what they were: near-indisputable confessions. She was also testifying in court while high. 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." Kaczmarek got a note from Sgt. Rollins said it covers "a period of time in which either now disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan, or another convicted chemist Sonja Farak ," worked there. She couldn't be sure which cases these were, Dookhan told investigators. The attorney general's representative at these hearings was Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster, a recent hire. In 2019, the chemist was spotted at federal court in Springfield, MA , attending a civil case. 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.". Kaczmarek is one of three former prosecutors whose role in the prosecution of Farak later became the focus of several lawsuits and disciplinary hearings. Disgraced drug lab chemist Sonja Farak emerges as her own attorney as defendant in $5.7 million federal lawsuit. Both have since left the attorney general's office for other government positions. The special hearing officer found Kaczmarek "displayed no remorse" and was "not candid" during the disciplinary proceedings. 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. Without access to the diaries, the Springfield judge in 2013 found that Farak had starting stealing from samples in summer 2012. 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. Sonja Farak is in the grip of a rubbed-raw depression that hasn't responded to medication. 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. 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. 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. Joseph . Episode 1. As he leafed through three boxes of evidence, he found the substance abuse worksheets and diaries. As the state's top court put it, the criminal investigation into Farak was "cursory at best.". But whether anyone investigated her conduct during a brief stint working at the state's Boston drug lab is at . 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. Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline. In the aftermath, the court felt it necessary to make clear that "no prosecutorhas the authority to decline to disclose exculpatory information.". Would love your thoughts, please comment. Penate is seeking a new trial, contending the conviction should be reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct and evidence tainted by Farak. He emailed them to Kaczmareksubject: "FARAK Admissions." Farak struggled with mental health throughout her life, the documentary series explains. Several defense attorneys who called for the Velis-Merrigan investigation say the former judges and their state police investigators got it wrong. "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.". Introduction. Having barely investigated her, prosecutors indicted Farak only for the samples in her possession the day she was caught. Patrick appointed the state inspector general to look into it. 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. "No reasonable individual could have failed to appreciate the unlawfulness of [Kaczmarek's] actions in these circumstances," Robertson wrote in her ruling. 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. In her June 17 ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Katherine Robertson dismissed former Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek's claims of qualified immunity a doctrine that gives legal immunity to some public officials accused of misconduct. There is nothing to indicate that the allegations against Farak date back to the time she tested the drugs in Penates case. As Solotaroff recounts in detail, Massachusetts attorney Luke Ryan represented two people who were accused of drug charges that Farak had analyzed . The surveillance of the chemists as well as the standards and the confiscated drugs has also been increased considerably. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Sonja Farak is the subject of Netflix's "How To Fix a Drug Scandal. 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. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. Another worksheet had the month and weekdays for December 2011, which police easily could have determined by cross-referencing holidays or looking up a New England Patriots game mentioned in one entry. 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. 1. 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 federal food benefits decline, Mass. Defense attorneys had. The defense bar also demanded answers on how such crucial evidence stayed buried for so long. 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. She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. She soon crossed all these lines. 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. another filing. And so, when she pleaded guilty in January 2014, Farak got what one attorney called "de facto immunity." In court, she added that there was "no smoking gun" in the evidence. 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. This is merely a fishing expedition, Foster wrote in Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. Episode 2. . The place was closed as soon as Faraks crimes came to light. Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. 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. Dookhan was sentenced to prison in 2013. A drug chemist . Faraks notes also The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. Soon after Dookhan's arrest, Coakley's office asked the governor to order a broader independent probe of the Hinton lab. After she was caught, Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the lab and was sentenced to prison time of 18 months. 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. But unlike with Dookhan, no one launched a bigger investigation of Farak. He was floored when he found the worksheets. And both pose the obvious question about how chemists could behave so badly for years without detection. His is one of what lawyers say could be thousands of convictions questioned in the wake of the Farak scandal. 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. Such strong claims were too hasty at best, since investigators had not yet finished basic searches; three days later, police executed a warrant for a duffel bag they found stuffed behind Farak's desk. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. Even when she failed a post-arrest drug testprompting the lead investigator to quip to Kaczmarek, "I hope she doesn't have a stash in her house! Lab's standards on a fairly regular basis beginning in late 2004 or early 2005," the attorney general's report notes in launching its recounting of the chemist's drug-taking journey . | One colleague called her the "super woman of the lab. Two drug lab chemists' shocking crimes cripple a state's judicial system and blur the lines of justice for lawyers, officials and thousands of inmates. 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 . Most important, they found seven worksheets from Farak's substance abuse therapy. Though. 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. 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. That motion was denied, and the notice letters will explain Farak's tampering without any mention of prosecutorial misconduct. 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. His report deemed Dookhan the "sole bad actor" at the lab, a finding that remains disputed in some circles. The next month, Ryan asked again. 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.