I, think I make a strong case and advocate that humans are fallible and she needs to be given a second chance, but thats an unpopular opinion, and I can't control how the public reacts to it.. The four-part investigation explains why the Massachusetts drug analyst fabricated evidence while working at the Hinton State Laboratory in Boston, and how her incompetence affected a subsequent scandal involving fellow chemist Sonja Farak in Amherst. In fact, she was highly accomplished before all her struggles. A judge will hold a final hearing on the settlement in October. (Netflix) A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. Before her sentencing, Farak failed a drug test while. "If she puts her mind to something, she can do it, Amy told the producers of How to Fix a Drug Scandal.. While confessed addict Farak was using confiscated drugs as her personal stash Dookhan wasn't even testing her drugs, just pushing all tests through as positive to impress her superiors with her speed and efficiency. They wrote that she served 13 months and was paroled sometime in 2015.. The scandal led to the dismissal of thousands of drug convictions. 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. Farak was arrested in January 2013 for stealing drugs . Sonja Farak (left) leaving the courthouse with her lawyer. She worked there for a year but soon realized she wouldnt make enough money there in the Boston area to buy a house. October 6, 2020 All Things Considered. Former Assistant Attorney Generals Anne Kaczmarek and Kris Foster withheld evidence regarding Sonja Farak's drug abuse and committed fraud in order to minimise the fallout - but unfortunately,. She really did, at certain times, tried to stop doing this but couldnt.. 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. Sonja Farak: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the Amherst crime drug lab from 2004 to 2013 during which she was high almost every day. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! . I was like, 'Why are they going to incarcerate me for money?' A majority of the report focused on Kaczmarek, who was primarily in charge of the day-to-day handling of the Farak prosecution. She's no longer in prison, as Farak has served her sentence. Since then, she has kept a low profile. Episode 1. Jasmine Gomez is the Commerce Editor at Womens Health, where she cover the best product recommendations across beauty, health, lifestyle, fitness, and more. As shown in the docuseries, she testified that her childhood was normal and middle class. Since Linda does not seem to have any social media profiles, we cannot give you a recent photographic update. Many people watching the show are wondering: where is Sonja Farak now? They are the number one team in their division, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at GBH, Transparency in Coverage Cost-Sharing Disclosures. November 19, 2019 01:17 PM. Former Massachusetts assistant attorney general Anne Kaczmarek prosecuted Farak in 2013. READ NEXT: Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal Story: 5 Fast Facts, Sonja Farak: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. She was arrested on January 19, 2013. I think that this is really painful and difficult that her case is getting re-examined in sort of a public way because, you know, when you put things on a network like Netflix, people are going to talk about it.". Support GBH. As the docuseries shows, she admitted to a therapist in 2009 that she had been struggling with addiction issues since 2005. Massachusetts officials are notifying more than 30,000 people who will share a $14 million dollar settlement for the impact of the states drug lab scandals a decade ago. Farak was well (Long, 2021) educated, participated in sports, was married, owned a home, did not have a criminal record, and held a respectable job . She was sentenced in January 2014 after she pled guilty to four counts of theft of a controlled substance from an authorized dispensary, four counts of tampering with evidence and two counts of cocaine possession. Part of that process included having a conversation with Farak, though Carr couldn't capture it on camera. She started skimming small amounts of drugs, but soon, she was falsifying evidence and cooking crack cocaine in the evidence lab. El Chino ntrax. A Board of Bar Overseers special hearing officer recently issued these findings in a 98-page decision about former assistant attorneys general Anne Kaczmarek, John Verner and Kris Foster. She tested . The district attorneys in Norfolk, Middlesex, Essex, Suffolk, Hampden and Northwest counties have dismissed charges in about 6,000 cases linked to Farak. This documentary mini-series follows the stories of these two drug 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. Farak admitted in testimony that she began using drugs almost as soon as she started working at the Massachusetts State Crime Lab in Amherst. The newest true crime series from Netflix, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, was released on April 1, 2020. She started doing drugs almost as soon as she took the job at Amherst, but it was after years of negligence on her superiors part that her actions finally came to light. You know, no special treatment.. 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. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. It was a slippery slope from there, as Sonja went from cocaine to crack cocaine and even LSD. She suffered from substance misuse disorder and she was in the worst kind of place to try to combat that, defense attorney Luke Ryan told Oxygen.com. She looked into the western area of the state because it was less expensive and less hectic. The Board of Bar Overseers (BBO) is reviewing the actions of three prosecutors in the investigation of the scandal to determine whether any of them deliberately withheld potentially exculpatory evidence. The four-part documentary focuses on Dookhan and an independent case of fraud in the drug lab by Sonja Farak. Given the account that Farak was a law-abiding citizen, it is questioned as to how an educated person with a stable job would commit a crime of this magnitude. Directed by Erin Lee Carr, the four-part Netflix docuseries depicts the criminal investigation of two drug analysts - Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan - who manipulated the legal process for self-serving reasons. I was doing really well, Westcott said. She recalled a hearing where she had to borrow $250 or return to jail. While Carr doesn't know a lot about Farak's personal life ("She's a very, very private person," she notes), the director does believe she is a "clear cut example" of the power of second chances. 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. The latter investigation was the result of a complaint filed by Nina Morrison, senior litigation counsel for the Innocence Project. Westcott has been in recovery from heroin addiction for nearly nine years. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. If the judge determines that it is fair, a settlement administrator will send out checks. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This achievement earned her a full page layout in the local paper and some local TV news coverage. She started working shortly after for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in July 2003 until July 2012, and from July 2012 until January 2013 for the Massachusetts State Police when the lab fell under their jurisdiction. Published Jul 1, 2020. Though Farak was arrested in 2013 and sentenced to jail in 2014, the findings from the state's investigation into the scope of her misconduct were just released Tuesday. The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Towards the end of the docuseries, we see her coming to terms with Sonjas indiscretions. Penate's lawsuit, which seeks $5.7 million in damages, is believed to be one of the last remaining suits tied to the scandals; the statute of limitations to file such suits has expired. 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. The potential impact of Farak's malpractice is still being assessed by the district attorneys from counties that relied on the Amherst lab to handle evidence. While she reached out to her family to let them know that the docuseries was coming out, she hasnt spoken to Farak and doesn't know much about her current life. Months before Faraks misconduct came to light in 2013, another lab technician named Annie Dookhan was arrested in 2012 after it became apparent that she wasnt even testing the drug evidence; rather, she just marked results as positive so that she could impress her colleagues with her speed and efficiency. Shortly into her role at Amherst, Farak decided to try liquid methamphetamine to ease her personal struggles. Soon after, the state police took over the control, and the lab was moved to Springfield, where it remains under the supervision of the state police. Penate is just one of the thousands of people whose cases were affected by Faraks actions. A new documentary by Netflix 'How to Fix a Drug Scandal' looks at the . Farak graduated with high distinction from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and was passionate about science, according to Rolling Stone. Is Netflix's 'The Nurse' Based On A True Story? I think I make a strong case and advocate that humans are fallible and she needs to be given a second chance, but thats an unpopular opinion, and I can't control how the public reacts to it.. In the series, it's explained that Farak loved the energy the meth gave her. 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. Sonja Farak was released on parole in 2016 and has remained out of the spotlight ever since. The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. Magistrate Judge Robertson denied a request in Penate's lawsuit that Kaczmarek be prohibited from contesting the special hearing officer's findings. AG Healey has also dedicated her efforts to finding fair resolutions for all involved, including advocating for the dismissal of convictions impacted by (Annie) Dookhan and Faraks crimes, and ensuring certain fines and fees are returned to defendants whose criminal charges have been dismissed.. Carr, who has been public about her past personal battles with alcohol misuse said that it takes both strength and a very specific type of person to hide such intense substance use for so long. Linda was married to Stanley M Farak, who was in the US Navy. Regardless, there's little attention paid to the humanity of the actual chemist . 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. Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. 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. 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. Her wrongdoings were exposed when unsealed cocaine and a crack pipe were found under her desk. Eight years since disgraced chemist Sonja Farak was arrested for tampering with evidence at a Massachusetts drug lab, the effects of her actions are still unfolding. The process of reimbursing people for the biggest drug lab scandals in the nations history is moving forward. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. The docuseries did note that Farak is still a fan of the Patriots. 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. Thank you! He went to bat for clients who were affected by both Farak and Dookhans misconduct. Criminal. 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.. However, from the docuseries, it is clear that she remains in touch with her daughters. He said he feels she suffered from both a chemical dependency and a psychological dependence to the drugs. The disgraced chemist was sentenced to less than two years behind bars in 2014, following her guilty pleas for stealing cocaine from the lab. The number is 888-999-2881. She was caught when it was discovered she was high on LSD while testing samples from. F ormer FBI special agent Peter Strzok's wife discovered his affair with FBI lawyer Lisa Page on his phone in 2017, the Justice Department revealed in its response to . 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. 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. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a . While Dookhan had tampered with evidence and indulged in dry-labbing, Farak stole from her workplace. The cocaine, found in an unsealed, completed drug-testing kit, tested negativemeaning Farak had seemingly replaced the formerly "positive" drugs with falsified substances. Before her sentencing, Farak failed a drug test while out on bail, according to Mass Live. In fact, How To Fix a Drug Scandal shows the Faraks at a football game after Sonja serves time for her actions. Kaczmarek is one of three former prosecutors whose role in the prosecution of Farak later became the focus of several lawsuits and disciplinary hearings. The Real Housewives of Atlanta The Bachelor Sister Wives 90 Day Fiance Wife Swap The Amazing Race Australia Married at First Sight The Real Housewives of Dallas My 600-lb Life Last Week Tonight with . Sonja Farak in court in 2014.. She was struggling to suppress mental health issues, depression in particular, and she tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. Both were convicted of tampering with the drugs they were testing for evidence in criminal cases, resulting in the state Supreme Judicial Court dismissing tens of thousands of compromised criminal cases. 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. 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. There was something so tragic but also surreal about this story., She suffered from substance misuse disorder and she was in the worst kind of place to try to combat that, defense attorney Luke Ryan told, . I think it's very painful to be Sonja and I regret having to advocate against her, Ryan said in the docuseries. She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. Penate argued the court should follow those findings. Her parents were described as loving, and somewhat strict. The staff in the new lab was also doubled, and the number of trainees was also increased. Follow her @JazzeGomez. Penate's suit said Kaczmarek withheld evidence that Farak used drugs at the lab for longer than the Massachusetts attorney general's office first claimed, and that he would not have been imprisoned based on tainted evidence. The project has brought up questions Carr is still grappling with. She cried as she was sentenced, Mass Live reported in 2014. To find out if your case was affected by either Ms. Dookhan or Ms. Farak, you can call a toll-free hotline operated by defense lawyers with the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the public defender agency in Massachusetts. 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. In four counties alone, Farak personally . A scandal erupts, raising questions for the thousands of defendants in her cases. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. Follow us so you don't miss a thing! While I certainly think her longstanding refusal to acknowledge what she was doing comprised the rights of lots of people, I have sympathy for a human being who is struggling with a very difficult addiction, he said. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. Thats when she found a home working at a lab in the Morrill Science Building on the UMass Amherst campus. Thank you! Email; Facebook Tweet Listen 7:58. "No reasonable individual could have failed to appreciate the unlawfulness of [Kaczmarek's] actions in these circumstances," Robertson wrote in her ruling. For her wrongdoing, Farak served 18 months in prison and was released in 2015. Shes a high school graduate. A lead plaintiff in the class action suit, Nicole Westcott, 34, of Belchertown, said she doesn't know exactly how much money she stands to receive if a judge signs off on the settlement later this fall. Linda was married to Stanley M Farak, who was in the US Navy. Who is Sonja Farak? At the time of her arrest, she had resided in 37 Laurel Park in Northampton. Background. Sonja Farak worked at the Amherst crime lab testing the authenticity of controlled substances submitted by state law enforcement agencies. The new four-part Netflix series tracks chemists Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan, whose convictions for misconduct led to over 40,000 drug convictions being dismissed by the courts. Sonja got a job as a chemist at the Hinton State Laboratory building in Jamaica Plain after getting her college degree. 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. In fact, she was the first girl in the state of Rhode Island to play high school football in a public school system. The place was closed as soon as Faraks crimes came to light. Its unclear if Farak is still with Lee, as they have both remained out of the public eye since the case. The four-part Netflix series goes deep into the story of a man named Rolando Penate, a case Farak had handled at the lab. The lax security and regulations of the place and the negligent supervision of the employees and the stock of standards are the reasons why Farak was encouraged to do what she did. "As the gatekeeper to this evidence, she failed to turn over documents, and she adamantly opposed the requests for access. Court records showed that Farak was smocking crack and dropping acid on the same day that she tested the drugs in Penates case. At one point, Westcott said she faced incarceration because of unpaid court costs. Sonja Farak grew up with an interest in sports, and a desire to do well in life. General drug lab cases information. Lets find out. Share. Now the Board of Bar Overseers special hearing officer concluded that there were numerous lapses, oversights, intentional misconduct and rule violations by Kaczmarek, Verner and Foster. Sonja Farak during her arraignment at Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown in 2013. No wonder, she expresses an initial surprise upon learning that Sonja got addicted to drugs while working on her job. If you're on the prowl for . How to Fix A Drug Scandal is Netflix's latest intriguing documentary series, and these are 10 details everyone missed. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, on Monday, heard from attorneys representing prosecutors from the attorney general's office over their handling of the 2013 prosecution and arrest of drug. She played as the starting guard for Portsmouth High Schools freshman team. 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