The Amherst lab had called state police when the two missing samples were noticed in 2013. 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. "he didn't request a warrant. On paper, these numbers made Dookhan the most productive chemist at Hinton; the next most productive averaged around 300 samples per month. Farak received a sentence of 18 months in jail and 5 years of probation. He emailed them to Kaczmareksubject: "FARAK Admissions." Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. 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. 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. They tend to be more freeform notes about the session and your impressions of the client's statements and demeanour. On top of that, it was also ensured that no analyst would ever work without supervision. 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. What Did Sonja Farak Do, Exactly? The twin Massachusetts drug lab scandals are unprecedented in the sheer number of cases thrown out because of forensic misconduct. Join us. Without access to the diaries, the Springfield judge in 2013 found that Farak had starting stealing from samples in summer 2012. Where Is Sonja Farak Now? "It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents," Ryan wrote to the attorney general's office. Two weeks after Ryans discovery, the Attorney Generals Office Because she did so, Plaintiff served more than five years in a state prison.". But whether anyone investigated her conduct during a brief stint working at the state's Boston drug lab is at . 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. 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. 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. She started smoking crack cocaine in 2011 and was soon using it 10 to 12 times a day. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. 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. And when the tests she did run came back negative, Dookhan added controlled substances to the vials. How to Fix a Drug Scandal is an American true crime documentary miniseries that was released on Netflix on April 1, 2020. Fue arrestada el 19 de enero de 2013. The lead prosecutor on Farak's case knew about the diaries, as did supervisors at the state attorney general's office. Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. They were all rendered unacceptable. In November 2013, Dookhan pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, and perjury. Velis said he stood by the findings. Process Notes/Psychotherapy Notes Process notes are sometimes also referred to as psychotherapy notesthey're the notes you take during or after a session. 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. But unlike with Dookhan, no one launched a bigger investigation of Farak. motion with Hampden Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Kinder to see the evidence for himself. 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. Foster consulted Kaczmarek about the files contents, according to an A final decision is still pending and must be approved by the state Supreme Judicial Court. If chemists had to testify in person, Coakley warned melodramatically, misdemeanor drug prosecutions "would essentially grind to a halt. Her wrongdoings were exposed when unsealed cocaine and a crack pipe were found under her desk. 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. 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. 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. But in a Local prosecutors also remained in the dark. Scalia may as well have been describing Dookhan. The newest true crime series from Netflix, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, was released on April 1, 2020. The report 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. Coakley assigned the case against Dookhan to Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek and her supervisor, John Verner. One was clearly dated November 16, 2011a year and two months before her arrest. But why were a small handful of prosecutors allowed total control over evidence about one of the worst criminal justice failures in recent memory? 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 . Patrick said "the most important take-home" was that "no individual's due process rights were compromised.". Gainey added that Healey is pleased with their conclusion that prosecutors and the state police acted appropriately. Farak signed Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. To better estimate how many convictions will have to be reviewed because of Farak, the Supreme Judicial Court They pulled her aside as she walked back to the courthouse from her car, where she had smoked "a fair amount of crack" during her lunch break. 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. Support GBH. In court, she added that there was "no smoking gun" in the evidence. The place was closed as soon as Faraks crimes came to light. (Netflix) A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. Defense attorneys had. It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. The lawsuit names Kaczmarek, Farak and three members of the state police. Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline. TherapyNotes. According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Farak graduated with awards and distinctions. "As the gatekeeper to this evidence, she failed to turn over documents, and she adamantly opposed the requests for access. 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. If Farak found a substance was a true drug, the person it was confiscated from could be convicted of a substance-related crime. She had unrestricted access to the evidence room. Both have since left the attorney general's office for other government positions. 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. "I was totally controlled by my addiction," Farak later testified. Dookhan had seeded public mistrust in the criminal justice system, which "now becomes an issue in every criminal trial for every defendant.". He also 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. She was also under the influence when she took the stand during her trial. If they'd kept digging, defendants might still have learned the crucial facts. She soon crossed all these lines. They never searched Farak's computer or her home. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. food banks expect a surge, As streaming services boom, cable TV continues its decline. Judge Kinder ordered her to produce all potentially privileged documents for his review to determine whether they could be disclosed. The cocaine, found in an unsealed, completed drug-testing kit, tested negativemeaning Farak had seemingly replaced the formerly "positive" drugs with falsified substances. Terms Of Use, (Annie Dookhan (left) and Sonja Farak, Associated Press). It was. His is one of what lawyers say could be thousands of convictions questioned in the wake of the Farak scandal. As the state's top court put it, the criminal investigation into Farak was "cursory at best.". Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. Sonja Farak. The surveillance of the chemists as well as the standards and the confiscated drugs has also been increased considerably. February 2013 email, to which he attached the worksheets. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Zoning Makes the Green New Deal Impossible. 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. After the Supreme Court's decision, a skeptical colleague started tracking how many microscope slides Dookhan used to test samples for cocaine. 1. To multiple courts' amazement, her incessant drug use never caught the attention of her co-workers. 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.". Why did she do that and where has it left her? With your support, GBH will continue to innovate, inspire and connect through reporting you value that meets todays moments. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. As Solotaroff recounts in detail, Massachusetts attorney Luke Ryan represented two people who were accused of drug charges that Farak had analyzed . 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. ", The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. 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. 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. She tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. In a letter filed with the Supreme Court, Julianne Nassif, a lab supervisor, wrote that Hinton had "appropriate quality control" measures. In 2009, Farak branched out to the lab's amphetamine, phentermine, and cocaine standards. Most important, they found seven worksheets from Farak's substance abuse therapy. Kaczmarek quoted the worksheets in a memo to her supervisor, Verner, and others, summarizing that they revealed Farak's "struggle with substance abuse." Approximately one year later, she pled guilty to tampering with evidence, unlawful possession, and stealing narcotics. 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. Out of "an abundance of caution," Kaczmarek didn't present them to the grand jury that was convened to determine whether to indict Farak. Her answer: more than eight years before her arrest. 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.. State police took these worksheets from Farak's car in January 2013, the same day they arrested her for tampering with evidence and for cocaine possession. wrote she "tried to resist using @ work, but ended up failing." She even made her own crack in the lab. 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. Cleverly omitting pronouns, she wrote that "after reviewing" the file, "every documenthas been disclosed." Hearings could help decide how many of thousands of convictions tainted by Farak's testing may be overturned. 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. If there's ever any uncertainty over "whether exculpatory information should be disclosed," the Supreme Judicial Court later wrote, "the prosecutor must file a motion for a protective order and must present the information for a judge to review.". Follow us so you don't miss a thing! Between the two women, 47,000 drug convictions and guilty pleas have been dismissed in the last two years, many for misdemeanor possession. "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.". 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." As extensively detailed in How to Fix a Drug Scandal, Farak was arrested on January 19, 2013. 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. Farak had started taking drugs on the job within months of joining the lab. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. Two detectives found Farak at a courthouse waiting to testify on an unrelated matter. 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. Chemist Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to "tampering with evidence" back in 2014 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. YouTube 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. GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting. In 2019, the chemist was spotted at federal court in Springfield, MA , attending a civil case. 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. In an August 2013 email, Ryan asked Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster to review evidence taken from Farak. Its unclear if Farak is still with Lee, as they have both remained out of the public eye since the case. 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. compelled release of additional drug treatment records, which indicated Farak used a variety of drugs that she stole from the lab for years. She was trying to suppress mental health issues, depression in specific, and she attempted to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. Farak admitted in testimony that she began using drugs almost as soon as she started working at the Massachusetts State Crime Lab in Amherst. 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. One colleague called her the "super woman of the lab. As How to Fix a Drug Scandal explores, Farak had long struggled with her mental . After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. His email was one of more than 800 released with the Velis-Merrigan report. Dookhan was sentenced to prison in 2013. 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.". "Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority.