Coakley assigned the case against Dookhan to Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek and her supervisor, John Verner. 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. Democratic Gov. 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. There were also newspaper articles about other officials caught stealing drugs, including one with a scribbled note, "Thank god I'm not a law enforcement officer." 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. Before her sentencing, Farak failed a drug test while out on bail, according to Mass Live. Still, the state was acquiring evidence. On a Friday afternoon in January 2013, a call came in to Coakley's office: "We have another Annie Dookhan out west.". But unlike with Dookhan, no one launched a bigger investigation of Farak. The former judges and the state police officers who helped them conducted a thorough review, said Emalie Gainey, spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey. Foster replied that because the investigation against Farak was ongoing, she couldnt let him see it. The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. Shown results suggesting otherwise, she copped to contaminating samples "a few times" during the previous "two to three years.". 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. Faraks notes also Martha Coakley, then attorney general for the state, argued in Melendez-Diaz that a chemist's certificate contains only "neutral, objective facts." The number is 888-999-2881. Joseph . "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 crucial fact of her longstanding and frequent drug use also never made it into Farak's trial, much less to defendants appealing convictions predicated on her tainted analyses. 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 . The Farak scandal came as the state grappled with another drug lab crisis. That motion was denied, and the notice letters will explain Farak's tampering without any mention of prosecutorial misconduct. It declined Farak's offer of a detailed confession in exchange for leniency, nixing the offer without even negotiating terms. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. In the aftermath, the court felt it necessary to make clear that "no prosecutorhas the authority to decline to disclose exculpatory information.". | The medical records stated that she did not have an existing drug problem that was amplified by her access to more substances. . "I was totally controlled by my addiction," Farak later testified. But she proceeded on the hunch that Farak only became addicted in the months before her arrest, and her colleagues stonewalled people who were skeptical of that timeline. When a Therapy Session starts, the software automatically creates a To-Do list item reminding users to create the relevant documentation. How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Scott Allen. Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. A drug chemist . She was ar-rested for tampering with evidence while abusing narcotics at work. Sonja Farak stole, ingested or manufactured drugs almost every day for eight years while working as a chemist at a state lab in Amherst, Massachusetts. Sonja Farak had admitted to stealing and using drugs from the drug lab where she worked as a chemist for around 9 years. But Ryan, who represented Penate, suspected it was more extensive. ", But another co-worker was suspicious, particularly since he "never saw Dookhan in front of a microscope.". Patrick said "the most important take-home" was that "no individual's due process rights were compromised.". 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. During the next four years, she would periodically sober up and then relapse. 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. TherapyNotes. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. 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. To better estimate how many convictions will have to be reviewed because of Farak, the Supreme Judicial Court 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. 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. Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. It's not as bad as Dookhan, they asserted and implied over and over. She was sentenced in 2014 to 18 months in prison and 5 years of probation. 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. Coakley did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the Amherst crime . During her trial, her defense lawyer Elaine Pourinski said that Farak wasnt taking drugs to party, but instead to control her depression. 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. The lawsuit names Kaczmarek, Farak and three members of the state police. Reporting for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. "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. One colleague called her the "super woman of the lab. With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. 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. After Faraks arrest in 2013, police found pages of mental health worksheets in her car indicating she'd struggled with drug addiction since at least 2011. She had never quashed a subpoena before, but supervisors told her to fend off motions about Farak. Privacy Policy | "Whether law enforcement officials overlooked these papers or intentionally suppressed them is a question for another day.". 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.". Powered by WordPress.com VIP. 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. 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. Thank you! 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. Magistrate Judge Robertson denied a request in Penate's lawsuit that Kaczmarek be prohibited from contesting the special hearing officer's findings. Like Hinton, the Amherst lab had no cameras. She tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. But unlike with Dookhan, there were no independent investigations of Farak or the Amherst lab. Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline. food banks expect a surge, As streaming services boom, cable TV continues its decline. Patrick appointed the state inspector general to look into it. The court also dismissed all meth cases processed at the lab since Farak started in 2004. Episode 2. Sonja Farak in How to Fix a Drug Scandal. Kaczmarek got a note from Sgt. The show also delves into the issues of the state in discovering and reporting on the extent of the cases that were affected by Faraks actions. It was. 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. 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." 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. 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. 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. wrote to the Attorney Generals Office two days later. Since her release, she has kept a low profile and managed to stay out of the public . After her arrest, she received support from her parents, who showed up to her court appearances, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported. Sonja Farak is in the grip of a rubbed-raw depression that hasn't responded to medication. The lead prosecutor on Farak's case knew about the diaries, as did supervisors at the state attorney general's office. A local prosecutor also asked Ballou to look into a case Farak had tested as far back as 2005. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. 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 started at Amherst lab in Aug 2004 p. 32. Lets find out. She had been accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress in addition to the conspiracy to violate [Penates] civil rights.. GBH News brings you the stories, local voices, and big ideas that shape our world. She consumed meth, crack cocaine, amphetamines, and LSD at the bench where she tested samples, in a lab bathroom, and even at courthouses where she was testifying. Per her own court testimony, as shown in the docu-series, Farak started working at a state drug lab in Amherst in 2004. One of the reasons for the decrepit state and standard of the Amherst lab was the lack of funds. He also 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. ", Prosecutors maintained that Faraks rogue behavior spanned just a few months. compelled release of additional drug treatment records, which indicated Farak used a variety of drugs that she stole from the lab for years. At the time of her arrest, she had resided in 37 Laurel Park in Northampton. She soon crossed all these lines. And when defense attorneys tried to do it themselves, Coakley's office blocked their efforts. 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. But she insisted the drugs didn't compromise her worka belief that one judge would aptly declare "belies logic.". When the Farak scandal erupted, that misconduct came into view. Judge Kinder denied Ryans motion. Meier put the number at 40,323 defendants, though some have called that an overestimate. When defense lawyers asked to see evidence for themselves, state prosecutors smeared them as pursuing a "fishing expedition.". After the Supreme Court's decision, a skeptical colleague started tracking how many microscope slides Dookhan used to test samples for cocaine. 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. Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. State prosecutors gave Farak the immunity they had declined to grant two years earlier, then asked when she started analyzing samples while high. 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 Sonja Farak worked as a chemist for the state of Massachusetts, specializing in identifying illegal substances. The scandal led. His email was one of more than 800 released with the Velis-Merrigan report. Her role was to test for the presence of illegal substances, which could be instrumental in thousands of . 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. 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.". Yet state prosecutors withheld Farak's handwritten notes about her drug use, theft, and evidence tampering from defense attorneys and a judge for more than a year. In 2012, she began taking from co-workers' samples, forging intake forms and editing the lab database to cover her tracks. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 Contributed by Shawn Musgrave (Musgrave Investigations) p. 1. Over time, Farak's drug use turned to cocaine, LSD and, eventually, crack. Her ar-rest led to the dismissal of thousands of drug cases in Massachusetts. Shawn Musgrave A year later, in October 2014, prosecutors relented, granting access to the full evidence in Farak's case to attorney Luke Ryan. She was trying to suppress mental health issues, depression in specific, and she attempted to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. 3.4.2023 8:00 AM, Reason Staff She grew up in Portsmouth with her sister Amy. Our streamlined software is accessible wherever and whenever you . Relying on an investigation conducted by state police, the judges Her access to evidence was not restricted, and she continued testifying in court. Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. "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 would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents," Ryan wrote to the attorney general's office. Cleverly omitting pronouns, she wrote that "after reviewing" the file, "every documenthas been disclosed." According to a Rolling Stone piece on Farak, she struggled with depression from an early age, one that hasnt responded to medication. They wrote that Farak attempted suicide in high school and was also hospitalized while in college. email highlighted in the Velis-Merrigan report. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. "Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. (Netflix) A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. 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.". But a crucial issue was not before the court. The place was closed as soon as Faraks crimes came to light. "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." 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. "As the gatekeeper to this evidence, she failed to turn over documents, and she adamantly opposed the requests for access. Fortunately, the courts largely ignored this shallow investigation. The prosecutors have been tied to the drug lab scandal involving disgraced former state chemist Sonja Farak, who admitted to stealing and using drugs from an Amherst state lab. Velis said he stood by the findings. A status hearing on Penate's suit, which was filed in 2017, is scheduled for July. The twin Massachusetts drug lab scandals are unprecedented in the sheer number of cases thrown out because of forensic misconduct. Regarding the cases that she had handled, the Massachusetts courts threw out every case in the Amherst lab during her tenure. 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. 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 . Foster and another assistant attorney general assented to that motion. The latest true crime offering from Netflix is the documentary series "How to Fix a Drug Scandal." It dives into the story of Sonja Farak, a chemist who worked for a Massachusetts state drug. 3.3.2023 4:50 PM, 2022 Reason Foundation | 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. The attorney general's officeKaczmarek or her supervisorscould have asked a judge to determine whether the worksheets were actually privileged, as Kaczmarek later acknowledged. Local prosecutors also remained in the dark. They tend to be more freeform notes about the session and your impressions of the client's statements and demeanour. As How to Fix a Drug Scandal explores, Farak had long struggled with her mental . He emailed them to Kaczmareksubject: "FARAK Admissions." Verner's "marching orders," he later testified, were to prosecute Farak with "what was in front of us, the car, things that were readily apparent. It was an astoundingly light touch for the second state chemist arrested in six months. Farak received a sentence of 18 months in jail and 5 years of probation. She was also under the influence when she took the stand during her trial. She is not active on any social media platform and has kept her distance from the press. While Dookhan had tampered with evidence and indulged in dry-labbing, Farak stole from her workplace. The Dookhan prosecution was barely underway, a grand jury having returned indictments a few weeks earlier. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Sonja Farak is the subject of Netflix's "How To Fix a Drug Scandal. "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. 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. On paper, these numbers made Dookhan the most productive chemist at Hinton; the next most productive averaged around 300 samples per month. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. Stream GBH's Award-Winning Content For Parents And Children. May 2003 started working in Hinton drug lab p. 14. February 2013 email, to which he attached the worksheets. 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. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at GBH, Transparency in Coverage Cost-Sharing Disclosures. The special hearing officer found Kaczmarek "displayed no remorse" and was "not candid" during the disciplinary proceedings. Officials recognized the worksheets for what they were: near-indisputable confessions. He recommended she lose her law license for two years; the Office of Bar Counsel later argued Kaczmarek should be disbarred. And both pose the obvious question about how chemists could behave so badly for years without detection. 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. The attorney general's representative at these hearings was Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster, a recent hire. And so, when she pleaded guilty in January 2014, Farak got what one attorney called "de facto immunity." Sonja Farak is at the center of Netflix's new true crime docuseries, How To Fix a Drug Scandal. It took another three years for the truth to emerge. After she was caught, Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the lab and was sentenced to prison time of 18 months. 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.". In January of 2013, Sonja Farak, a chemist at a state crime lab in Massachusetts, was arrested for tampering with evidence related to criminal drug cases (Small, 2020).A year later, Farak pleaded guilty to tampering with drug evidence, theft of a controlled substance, and drug possession .She received a sentence of 18 months with 5 years of probation and was released in 2015. 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. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. The governor also tapped a local attorney, David Meier, to count how many individuals' cases might be tainted. 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. Inwardly though, Sonja Farak was striving. 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. A scandal erupts, raising questions for the thousands of defendants in her cases. I felt euphoric, Kogan wrote of Farak. Hearings could help decide how many of thousands of convictions tainted by Farak's testing may be overturned. Investigators either missed or declined opportunities to dig very deep. 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 criminal prosecution wasn't the only investigation of the Dookhan scandal. Among the papers they seized were handwritten worksheets Farak completed for drug-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. Kaczmarek quoted the worksheets in a memo to her supervisor, Verner, and others, summarizing that they revealed Farak's "struggle with substance abuse." So, in a way, it is not from her that the queue of the blame should begin; it should be from the lab and the authorities themselves. Among other items, Kaczmarek A hearing on their motions is scheduled next month. ", In 2004, her first full year at the lab, Dookhan reported analyzing approximately 700 samples per month. 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. Penate alleged Kaczmarek's actions violated his "Brady rights," which require prosecutors to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. Without access to the diaries, the Springfield judge in 2013 found that Farak had starting stealing from samples in summer 2012. 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. She was also testifying in court while high. 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. Among the papers they seized were handwritten worksheets Farak completed for drug-abuse therapy. 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. They never searched Farak's computer or her home. "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. 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.