Hearing Officer Finds Misconduct Against Former Drug Lab Prosecutors - WBUR You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. As How to Fix a Drug Scandal explores, Farak had long struggled with her mental . shipped nearly 300 pages of previously undisclosed materials to local prosecutors around the state. "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. Her role was to test for the presence of illegal substances, which could be instrumental in thousands of . 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. Massachusetts crime lab scandal worsens: Dookhan and Farak. A year later, in October 2014, prosecutors relented, granting access to the full evidence in Farak's case to attorney Luke Ryan. 1. Netflix's How to Fix a Drug Scandal: A staggering true story of - Vox May 2003 started working in Hinton drug lab p. 14. Her wrongdoings were exposed when unsealed cocaine and a crack pipe were found under her desk. Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. He didn't buy her quibbling that there's a difference between an explicit lie and obfuscation by grammar. Over time, Farak's drug use turned to cocaine, LSD and, eventually, crack. 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 . Who Is Luke Ryan From Netflix's 'How To Fix A Drug Scandal'? | True After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. Approximately one year later, she pled guilty to tampering with evidence, unlawful possession, and stealing narcotics. After serving for 13 months, she was released on parole in 2015. After the Supreme Court's decision, a skeptical colleague started tracking how many microscope slides Dookhan used to test samples for cocaine. . Would love your thoughts, please comment. On a Friday afternoon in January 2013, a call came in to Coakley's office: "We have another Annie Dookhan out west.". In 2012, she began taking from co-workers' samples, forging intake forms and editing the lab database to cover her tracks. You can try, Suspensions and a reprimand proposed for prosecutors admonished in drug lab scandal. Heres what you need to know about Sonja Farak: Farak was born on January 13, 1978, in Rhode Island to Stanley and Linda Farak. They were found with their packaging sliced open and their contents apparently altered. They wrote that Lee, disabled by a stew of mental ailments, [spent] her hours surfing the Web in a haze.. Democratic Gov. Officials recognized the worksheets for what they were: near-indisputable confessions. Foster replied that because the investigation against Farak was ongoing, she couldnt let him see it. 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. Where is Sonja now? In Sonja Farak drug lab scandal, Mass - The Washington Post ", But another co-worker was suspicious, particularly since he "never saw Dookhan in front of a microscope.". One colleague called her the "super woman of the lab. She started seeing a substance abuse therapist around this time. Drug lab cases information | Mass.gov As federal food benefits decline, Mass. 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. a certification of drug samples in Penates case on Dec. 22, 2011. 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. This immediately provoked questions about the thousands of cases in which her findings had contributed to the imprisonment of an individual. Joseph Ballou, lead investigator for the state police, called them the most important documents from the car. 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.". According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Farak graduated with awards and distinctions. 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. Farak apparently still tested each caseunlike Annie Dookhan, another Massachusetts chemist who was arrested five months prior to Farak for fabricating test results. Shawn Musgrave Kaczmarek got a note from Sgt. Massachusetts prosecutors withheld evidence of corrupt state narcotics testing for months from a defendant facing drug charges, and didnt release it until after his conviction, according to newly surfaced documents and emails. Yet Dookhan's brazen crimes went undetected for ages. On paper, these numbers made Dookhan the most productive chemist at Hinton; the next most productive averaged around 300 samples per month. To multiple courts' amazement, her incessant drug use never caught the attention of her co-workers. Poetically, that landmark case originated from the Hinton lab, although Dookhan didn't conduct the analysis in question. 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. 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 couldn't be sure which cases these were, Dookhan told investigators. 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. Privacy Policy | The next month, Ryan asked again. TherapyNotes. Farak signed Episode 1. Sonja Farak in How to Fix a Drug Scandal. 1. 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. But she insisted the drugs didn't compromise her worka belief that one judge would aptly declare "belies logic.". In an August 2013 email, Ryan asked Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster to review evidence taken from Farak. Sonja Farak. The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. Defense attorneys had. The fact that she ran analyses while high and regularly dipped into samples casts doubt on thousands of convictions. The story of the intertwining Farak and Penate evidence began in January 2013, when state police arrested Farak and searched her car. 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. 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. There is nothing to indicate that the allegations against Farak date back to the time she tested the drugs in Penates case. Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. Without even interviewing Foster, they determined there was "no evidence" of obstruction of justice by her, by Kaczmarek, or by any state prosecutor. 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. Since then, she has kept a low profile. Kaczmarek also oversaw the prosecution for the attorney general's office in that case. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. She even made her own crack in the lab. 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. When a Therapy Session starts, the software automatically creates a To-Do list item reminding users to create the relevant documentation. 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. mentioned a New England Patriots game on Saturday, Dec. 24 which corresponded with a game date in 2011. The former judges and the state police officers who helped them conducted a thorough review, said Emalie Gainey, spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey. One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 Contributed by Shawn Musgrave (Musgrave Investigations) p. 1. Release year: 2020. State chemist may have affected more drug cases than previously known Ryan finally viewed the file in the attorney generals offices in October 2014. She was also testifying in court while high. I felt euphoric, Kogan wrote of Farak. How to Fix a Drug Scandal: behind a staggering Netflix crime docuseries A few months before her arrest, Farak's counselor recommended in-patient rehab. In the aftermath, the court felt it necessary to make clear that "no prosecutorhas the authority to decline to disclose exculpatory information.". Follow us so you don't miss a thing! Thank you! 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 was released from prison in 2015 and has kept a low profile since. Patrick said "the most important take-home" was that "no individual's due process rights were compromised.". The criminal prosecution wasn't the only investigation of the Dookhan scandal. "It was almost like Dookhan wanted to get caught," one of her former co-workers told state police in 2012. noted the mental health worksheets found in Faraks car, which had not been released. "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 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." In a March 2013 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. According to a newspaper article from 1992, she was the first female in Rhode Island to be on a high school football team. Judge dismisses 'qualified immunity' claim in suit against ex - WBUR 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. ", In 2004, her first full year at the lab, Dookhan reported analyzing approximately 700 samples per month. email highlighted in the Velis-Merrigan report. | Finding that there did not appear to be enough slides in Dookhan's discard pile to match her numbers, the colleague brought his concerns to an outside attorney, who advised he should be careful making "accusations about a young woman's career," he later told state police. Between the two women, 47,000 drug convictions and guilty pleas have been dismissed in the last two years, many for misdemeanor possession. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the lab. Two weeks after Ryans discovery, the Attorney Generals Office 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." Kaczmarek had obtained the evidence at issue while she was prosecuting Farak on state charges of tampering with evidence and drug possession. After serving just a year of her 18 month sentence, Farak was released from prison in 2015. "I suspect that if another entity was in the mix"perhaps the inspector general or an independent investigator"the Attorney General's Office would have treated the Farak case much more seriously and would have been much more reluctant to hide the ball," Ryan writes in an email. concluded there was no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct or obstruction of justice in matters related to the Farak case. At the time of Penates trial, the state Attorney Generals Office contended Faraks misdeeds dated back only as far as 2012. Her ar-rest led to the dismissal of thousands of drug cases in Massachusetts. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. 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. Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. Sgt. The number is 888-999-2881. According to the notes, Farak thought it gave her energy, helped her to get things done and not procrastinate, feel more positive., Her partner Nikki Lee testified before a grand jury that she herself had tried cocaine, that she had observed Farak using cocaine in 2000, and that she had marijuana in her house when police officers arrived to search the premises as part of their investigation of Farak., In Faraks testimony during a grand jury investigation, she said that she became a recreational drug user during graduate school and used cocaine, marihuana, and ecstasy. She also said she used heroin one time and was nervous and sick and hated every minute of it [and had] no desire to use [it] again., Farak met and settled down with Nikki Lee in her 20s. It's been like this forever, or at least since girlhood. He emailed them to Kaczmareksubject: "FARAK Admissions." Two detectives found Farak at a courthouse waiting to testify on an unrelated matter. The place was closed as soon as Faraks crimes came to light. Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to stealing samples of drugs from an Amherst drug lab. She recovered, made it through college and got a job as a chemist at the Amherst Crime Lab, where she tested confiscated drugs. What Did Sonja Farak Do, Exactly? 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. For people with disabilities needing assistance with the Public Files, contact Glenn Heath at 617-300-3268. Process Notes/Psychotherapy Notes Process notes are sometimes also referred to as psychotherapy notesthey're the notes you take during or after a session. Instead, she submitted an intentionally vague letter to the judge claiming defense attorneys already had everything. It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. 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 . answered that the state considered the evidence irrelevant to any case other than Faraks.. Among other items, Kaczmarek Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. His report deemed Dookhan the "sole bad actor" at the lab, a finding that remains disputed in some circles. Chemist was high at work for 8 years: court docs - CBS News His email was one of more than 800 released with the Velis-Merrigan report. This past Tuesday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court filed a report saying that more than 24,000 convictions in 16,449 cases have been dismissed as a result of foul play by a former state drug lab chemist. When she got married, it turned out that her wife, too, suffered from her own demons, and their collective anguish made Sonja desperate for a reprieve from this life. She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. memo, Kaczmarek told her supervisors that "Farak's admissions on her 'emotional worksheets' recovered from her car detail her struggle with substance abuse. A Powerful EHR to Manage a Thriving Practice. 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. She was sentenced to 18 months in jail plus five years of probation. In 2019, she was seen leaving the Springfield Federal Court but declined to comment on the status of the case. 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. Prosecutors have an obligation to give the defense exculpatory evidence including anything that could weaken evidence against defendants. Investigators either missed or declined opportunities to dig very deep. Kaczmarek was now juggling two scandals on opposite sides of the state. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. 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. Farak wasn't the first Massachusetts chemist to tamper with drug evidence. Dookhan was now spending less time at her lab bench and more time testifying in court about her results. 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. Former chemist Annie Dookhan was convicted in 2013 on charges of improperly testing drug evidence at a drug lab in Boston. At some point, the attorney general's office stopped chasing leads entirely. "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. State prosecutors hadnt provided this evidence to other district attorneys offices contending with the Farak fallout, either. 3.3.2023 5:45 PM, Jacob Sullum Deval Patrick's office didn't learn about the protocol breach until December 2011. 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. Still, the state was acquiring evidence. 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.