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. (Belchertown, MA, 01/22/13) Sonja Farak, 35, of Northampton, is arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown on charges that she stole cocaine and heroin while working as a. 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. 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. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Initially, she had represented herself in answer to the complaints lodged against her, but later, she turned to Susan Sachs, who represented her since, not just on the Penate lawsuit, but also on any other case that emerged as the result of her actions in Amherst. She started smoking crack cocaine in 2011 and was soon using it 10 to 12 times a day. Farak admitted in testimony that she began using drugs almost as soon as she started working at the Massachusetts State Crime Lab in Amherst. 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." Introduction. Its unclear if Farak is still with Lee, as they have both remained out of the public eye since the case. The defense bar had raised concerns that prosecutors might be "perceived as having a stake" in such an investigation. Two weeks after Ryans discovery, the Attorney Generals Office "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.". She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. The Farak scandal came as the state grappled with another drug lab crisis. Sonja Farak worked as a chemist for the state of Massachusetts, specializing in identifying illegal substances. 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. Why did she do that and where has it left her? Sonja Farak was a chemist for a state crime lab in Massachusetts. Farak. 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. Kaczmarek wrote back. 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. Foster and another assistant attorney general assented to that motion. 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. It declined Farak's offer of a detailed confession in exchange for leniency, nixing the offer without even negotiating terms. Since the takeover, the budget for all forensic labs across the state has been increased, by around twenty-five per cent. Both scandals undercut confidence in the criminal justice system and the validity of forensic analysis. 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. 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. The justices ordered Healey's department to cover all costs of notifying all defendants whose cases were dismissed. In the only quasi-independent probe of the Farak scandal ever ordered, Attorney General Healey and a district attorney appointed two retired judges to investigate in summer 2015. In 2019, she was seen leaving the Springfield Federal Court but declined to comment on the status of the case. Penate is seeking a new trial, contending the conviction should be reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct and evidence tainted by Farak. 3.3.2023 5:30 PM, Joe Lancaster Her job consisted of testing drugs that have. She was sentenced to 18 months in jail plus five years of probation. As Solotaroff recounts in detail, Massachusetts attorney Luke Ryan represented two people who were accused of drug charges that Farak had analyzed . Reporting for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. "These drugswere tested fairly," Coakley claimed the day after Farak's arrest. | 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. This threw every sample she had ever tested into question. After she was caught, Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the lab and was sentenced to prison time of 18 months. a certification of drug samples in Penates case on Dec. 22, 2011. Her medical records included notes from Faraks therapist in Amherst, Anna Kogan. They say court records and newly released emails show prosecutors sat on evidence they were familiar with that pointed to Faraks drug use in 2011, when she worked on Penates case. 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. "I was totally controlled by my addiction," Farak later testified. A few months before her arrest, Farak's counselor recommended in-patient rehab. 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. Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline. Inwardly though, Sonja Farak was striving. Fue arrestada el 19 de enero de 2013. Faraks therapist, Anna Kogan, wrote in her notes that Farak was worried about Nikki finding out about her addiction as well as the possible legal issues if she were ever caught. Chemist Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to "tampering with evidence" back in 2014 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. Without even interviewing Foster, they determined there was "no evidence" of obstruction of justice by her, by Kaczmarek, or by any state prosecutor. 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. Instead, she submitted an intentionally vague letter to the judge claiming defense attorneys already had everything. "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. 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.". 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. Magistrate Judge Robertson denied a request in Penate's lawsuit that Kaczmarek be prohibited from contesting the special hearing officer's findings. 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. 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. February 2013 email, to which he attached the worksheets. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. Because of all that, it's no surprise that Farak was sent to prison in Massachusetts. ", Prosecutors nationwide pretty uniformly backed this argument, which the Supreme Court rejected in a 54 opinion. 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. 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. Two detectives found Farak at a courthouse waiting to testify on an unrelated matter. She later called this dismissive exchange a "plea to God.". Shawn Musgrave 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. Listen Live: Classic and Contemporary Celtic, Listen Live: Cape, Coast and Islands NPR Station, Boston nonprofit Street2Ivy is producing this generation's entrepreneurs. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015. Over time, Farak's drug use turned to cocaine, LSD and, eventually, crack. But unlike with Dookhan, there were no independent investigations of Farak or the Amherst lab. (Conveniently, they also found a Patriots schedule from 2011 in the car.). As Kaczmarek herself later observed, Farak essentially had "a drugstore at her disposal" from her first day at the Amherst lab. Would love your thoughts, please comment. Despite her status as a free woman (who has seemingly disappeared from the public eye), Farak's wrongdoings continue to make waves in the Massachusetts courts. Between the two women, 47,000 drug convictions and guilty pleas have been dismissed in the last two years, many for misdemeanor possession. Rollins said it covers "a period of time in which either now disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan, or another convicted chemist Sonja Farak ," worked there. The number is 888-999-2881. 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. Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. The governor didn't appoint the inspector general or anyone else to determine how long Farak was altering samples or running analyses while high. At the time of her arrest, she had resided in 37 Laurel Park in Northampton. Velis said he stood by the findings. She was also under the influence when she took the stand during her trial. Episode 2. They were found with their packaging sliced open and their contents apparently altered. Join us. She grew up in Portsmouth with her sister Amy. Ryan then filed a A Powerful EHR to Manage a Thriving Practice. Officials recognized the worksheets for what they were: near-indisputable confessions. We couldn't do it without you. "Because on almost a daily basis Farak abused narcoticsthere is no assurance that she was able to perform chemical analysis correctly," the judge found. How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Scott Allen.