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Kaczmarek is one of three former prosecutors whose role in the prosecution of Farak later became the focus of several lawsuits and disciplinary hearings. 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. She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. 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. GBH News brings you the stories, local voices, and big ideas that shape our world. 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. The four-part Netflix series goes deep into the story of a man named Rolando Penate, a case Farak had handled at the lab. She cried as she was sentenced, I think it's very painful to be Sonja and I regret having to advocate against her, Ryan, said in the docuseries. After years of misconduct, thousands of wrongful convictions are Nonetheless, she remains a private person and asks to be left alone. 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. 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. She remained a football fan, and loved the Patriots. After years of digging, lawyers found that Farak's illicit use of the drugs she worked with every day had actually become an addiction, and that her drug use had started well before her arresta fact the Massachusetts attorney general's office didn't initially reveal, according to the docuseries. We couldn't do it without you. She has been under arrest since 2013 under drug abuse charges. On the surface, their crimes dont seem as injurious and they dont seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others. PDF Commonwealth of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Committee for How to Fix a Drug Scandal: behind a staggering Netflix crime docuseries 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. And now, three state prosecutors who investigated Farak are under investigation themselves by the states Board of Bar Overseers for their early handling of evidence. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. YouTube Former Massachusetts crime lab chemist Sonja Farak, left, during her arraignment in 2013. Unfortunately, Stanley passed away in 2015. According to a newspaper article from 1992, she was the first female in Rhode Island to be on a high school football team. According to a Rolling Stone profile on Farak and the case, the former chemist has not been heard from since her release. Damning evidence reveals drug lab chemist Sonja Farak's addictions. How to Fix a Drug Scandal: Where are the key players now? 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,. "They wanted Sonja to be really rendered as human," Carr explains. The settlement also covers relatives of deceased class members. That settlement awaits approval by a judge. She started bringing drugs home, and doing them first thing in the morning. Judge dismisses 'qualified immunity' claim in suit against ex - WBUR 10 Things Everyone Completely Missed In Netflix's How to Fix a Drug Scandal 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. SJC dismisses thousands of drug cases after Amherst lab scandal Follow her @JazzeGomez. As shown in the docuseries, she testified that her childhood was normal and middle class. Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. However, from the docuseries, it is clear that she remains in touch with her daughters. That is as much public exposure as shes opened herself up to since her release from jail. Easy access to drugs and the lack of supervision at work allowed Farak to maintain and hide her addiction for several years. 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. Report shows more than 24k wrongful convictions dismissed in drug lab April 1, 2020. 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, . Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline. She has since been one of 18 defendants facing a lawsuit by Rolando Penate, who claims they. Within a year of working at the new lab, Farak began doing drugs. Here's Where Sonja Farak Is Now, After 'How to Fix a Drug Scandal' I wasnt abused and yet I still turned out a certain way, still had some problems.. Its unclear if Farak is still with Lee, as they have both remained out of the public eye since the case. Watch How to Fix a Drug Scandal | Netflix Official Site Those receiving notices had their criminal convictions dismissed because evidence in their cases was tainted by the misconduct of former state chemists Annie Dookhan and Sonja Farak. 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 . 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. She shone academically as well. A scandal erupts, raising questions for the thousands of defendants in her cases. Directed by Erin Lee Carr, How to Fix a Drug Scandal released in April 2020 on Netflix. "She isn't on drugs anymore, and I think that that is incredible," Carr, who also directed the true-crime documentaries "I Love You, Now Die" and "Mommy Dead and Dearest," told Womens Health. Rick Sobey is a multimedia, general assignment reporter -- covering breaking news, politics and more across the region. Filmmaker Erin Lee Carrs newest docuseries How to Fix a Drug Scandal shines a spotlight on misconduct on several levels but its primary focus is on a Massachusetts former drug lab technician named Sonja Farak. She eventually landed a job at the Amherst crime lab of the Massachusetts State Police, after graduating from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Infamous drug lab chemist Sonja Farak faced an agonising new court case after being released from jail for smoking crack on the job. Criminals. Though viewers won't hear from Farak directly due to a pending civil case, the series paints a vivid picture of Farak's drug use through dramatization. Regarding the cases that she had handled, the Massachusetts courts threw out every case in the Amherst lab during her tenure. Sonja Farak in court in 2014.. At the time of her arrest, she had resided in 37 Laurel Park in Northampton. Read More: Best Movies about Drug on Netflix. Thousands Of Cases Tied To Second Disgraced State Chemist Dismissed Sonja Farak: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com It appears that Linda has Christianity listed as her religion, and is a Caucasian woman, whos registered as a Democrat. SIMMONS, COMMONWEALTH vs., 488 Mass. 1001 According to an Attorney General Offices report, Farak attended Temple University in Philadelphia for graduate school, which is where she became a recreational drug user. No wonder, she expresses an initial surprise upon learning that Sonja got addicted to drugs while working on her job. When she's not shopping for a living, she enjoys karaoke and dining out more than she cares to admit. More than 24,000 convictions have been overturned as a result of her case. Kaczmarek failed to disclose information and intentionally misrepresented the evidence she had, and worked to actively shut down inquiry and deflect zealous work by Farak defendants counsel who were doing their jobs by requesting evidence of Faraks misconduct, according to the report. I felt amazing.. MGB medical residents want to change long hours, low pay and poor benefits. After launching a lengthy investigation, his attorney Luke Ryan discovered that Farak had been using drugs the same day she ran tests on the substances found on him, thanks to paperwork he discovered noting the date of one of Farak's therapy sessions, where she admitted to have been using that day. 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. She said, It was about coping; it certainly wasnt about having fun; I dont think shes had fun in quite a while.. 45 Year Olds. Farak struggled with mental health throughout her life, the documentary series explains. 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. Farak has stayed sober, according to the docuseries. She was caught when it was discovered she was high on LSD while testing samples from. After graduating from Portsmouth High School, Farak attended the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she got a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry in 2000. Sonja Farak: 35,000 criminal cases were dismissed because this - MEAWW Where Is Kris Foster From 'How to Fix a Drug Scandal' Now? - Women's Health Kaczmarek argued the findings are subject to appeal. She said it gave me the desired effects. The disgraced chemist was sentenced to less than two years behind bars in 2014, following her guilty pleas for stealing cocaine from the lab. When she tried it she did so when others in the lab went out to lunch it met her expectations. Farak pleaded guilty to four counts of tampering with evidence, four counts of theft of a controlled substance from an authorized dispensary, and two counts of possession of cocaine in 2014. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. Rick is a Massachusetts native and graduated from Boston University. The four-part documentary series, released this month, focuses on the 2013 arrest - and ensuing court case - of Sonja Farak, a then-35-year-old crime lab chemist accused of tampering with . The woman is older now and is perhaps trying to put the incident concerning her daughter, behind her. Instead, the documentary . Farak began her drug use by experimenting with liquid methamphetamine, but her addiction quickly grew and she began using other drugs including cocaine, and crack, which she smoked in her drug lab's bathroom, per Rolling Stone. Farak pleaded guilty in 2014 to stealing drugs and tampering with evidence, in addition to using crack cocaine and other drugs while analyzing evidence at the lab. After she was caught, Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the lab and was sentenced to prison time of 18 months. Sonja Farak grew up with an interest in sports, and a desire to do well in life. 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 married Nikki Lee. Rolling Stone covered both drug lab scandals in 2018 and uncovered that Farak had suffered from depression for many years. "Not only did I already put my life on hold for the years that I was using, but now I was ready to be a functional member of society and I was blocked from doing that because of these charges," Westcott said. She purchased a home there in 2006. ", SCOTUS Now Just Another Congressional Committee, Trump Ramps up Attacks on DeSantis: 'Dropping Like a Rock', Russian Strikes on Pavlohrad Aim to Hamper Ukraine's Counteroffensive, Greg Abbott Criticized for Response to Texas Shooting: 'A New Low', Democrat Sold First Republic Stock, Bought JP Morgan Before Collapse, Conservative Influencers Struggle With Countering Biden's Messaging. 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. She had been accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress in addition to the conspiracy to violate [Penates] civil rights.. Don Treeger/The Republican via AP, Pool, File. The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the Amherst crime drug lab from 2004 to 2013 during which she was high almost every day. A majority of the report focused on Kaczmarek, who was primarily in charge of the day-to-day handling of the Farak prosecution. Farak testified that she started off trying meth in the lab because she was "curious. She admitted that back in college shed research drugs and noted that meth sounded like one she was particularly interested in trying. Sonja Farak Biography, Netflix, Age, Wikipedia, Where is She Now? Wiki How to Fix a Drug Scandal depicts the role of former Attorney General of Massachusetts Martha Coakley, who was accused of political cover up. The project has brought up questions Carr is still grappling with. High Mass. Lab Chemist Causes Over 24,000 Drug Charges To Be Dismissed Farak received a sentence of 18 months in jail and 5 years of probation. Faraks sister Amy Farak said her sister excelled at sports. Netflix's new docuseries How to Fix a Drug Scandal is about way more than former drug lab chemist Sonja Farak's years-long addiction to the drugs she was testing everyday. Farak, a chemist, was later convicted of stealing drugs from the state lab in Amherst. The medical records stated that she did not have an existing drug problem that was amplified by her access to more substances. She has pledged to dismiss Suffolk County drug convictions an estimated 74,800 for anyone whose drug certification was done at the Hinton Lab between May 2003 and August 2012. After their arrests, prosecutors at the Massachusetts Attorney Generals office then. Time to get involved and help public media make an impact. She tested . Linda Farak is currently in her 60s. "I think that there has been a decent amount of coverage on Sonja regionally, but it was almost as if it was [only] the really intense partsthat she was smoking crack 10 to 12 times a daybut it didn't super go into her background, and her as a person," Carr explains. What is wrong with Sonja Faraks family? : r/HowToFixADrugScandal - Reddit The charges against Penate were dismissed after Farak's conviction. Sonja Farak during her arraignment at Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown in 2013. Farak graduated with high distinction from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and was passionate about science, according to Rolling Stone. After her arrest, she received support from her parents, who showed up to her court appearances, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. The lawsuit names Kaczmarek, Farak and three members of the state police. [1] The premise revolves around documentary filmmaker Erin Lee Carr following the effects of crime drug lab chemists Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan and their tampering with . "And I think often when we're looking at these criminal justice stories, and we're looking at 'perpetrators,' we sort of almost see them as avatars, like 'there was this bad chemist and she did X.'" In four counties alone, Farak personally . Linda was born on 19th July 1951. The Netflix docuseries makes it clear that moments were re-created based on text from unsealed court transcripts; however, casual streamers may get confused about the artistic filmmaking choice, or even believe that O'Neill is indeed Farak. The four-episode documentary series centers around the Massachusetts drug lab crisis that came to light a few years ago. Carr told Women's Health she was really interested in humanizing Farak's story to fill in the gaps left by New England media. They were all rendered unacceptable. "If she puts her mind to something, she can do it, Amy told the producers of How to Fix a Drug Scandal.. Farak pleaded guilty to four counts of tampering with evidence, four counts of theft of a controlled substance from an authorized dispensary, and two counts of possession of cocaine in 2014. I want to be accepted like one of them, Sonja said during the local news segment, included in the docuseries. At one point, Westcott said she faced incarceration because of unpaid court costs. 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. 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. 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. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Carr said shes been horrified to read angry reactions towards Farak over Twitter. Sonja Farak | MA Drug Lab Scandals - GitHub Pages It didnt matter whether or not she was the one who did the testing or some other chemist. Where is Linda Farak Now? - The Cinemaholic Her reporting focuses on mental health, criminal justice and education. Netflix's How to Fix a Drug Scandal: What Happened to Luke Ryan The difference? Sonja Farak worked at the Amherst crime lab testing the authenticity of controlled substances submitted by state law enforcement agencies. I think that she was so adept at hiding her addiction for so long, her downfall sort of came as a surprise to her and to everybody.". Sonja Farak was born in San Diego, California and within a year her family shifted to Newport, Rhode Island after her Navy father was transferred to the east coast. She played as the starting guard for Portsmouth High Schools freshman team. Magistrate Judge Robertson denied a request in Penate's lawsuit that Kaczmarek be prohibited from contesting the special hearing officer's findings. After serving for 13 months, she was released on parole in 2015. Am I somebody who took her personhood? Penate argued the court should follow those findings. 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. Apart from the late Stanley Farak, it appears that Amy and Sonja make up the rest of Lindas family. 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. 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 . After their arrests, prosecutors at the Massachusetts Attorney Generals office then tried to sweep their crimes under the rug without addressing how their actions affected the defendants who were convicted based on their drug testing. This Board of Bar Overseers report comes as Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins last week said shes asking the states highest court to toss thousands of convictions for which evidence was processed at the now-disgraced Hinton lab. The last contact information provided by her, in response to Penates allegations, placed her residence in Hatfield, Massachusetts. 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. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Deborah Becker Twitter Host/ReporterDeborah Becker is a senior correspondent and host at WBUR. In high school, she nearly died by suicide, and in college Farak was . Her supply came from work itself; she would take drugs and use them and then replace the evidence bags with fake drugs. The strikes left 34 people injured, including three children, and caused widespread damage. ", "She isn't on drugs anymore, and I think that that is incredible," Carr, who also directed the true-crime documentaries. Episode 2. While what she did was wrong, many have been sympathetic to her plight. A status hearing on Penate's suit, which was filed in 2017, is scheduled for July. Since the takeover, the budget for all forensic labs across the state has been increased, by around twenty-five per cent. She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. She's no longer in prison, as Farak has served her sentence. In the aftermath of Farak's arrest, it's been argued that because she was under the influence, all of the cases she tested could be considered to have been wrongfully convicted. How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Jared Olanoff. Yes, it is so exciting to put a series out and I think the series is well-reported and researched but its something that happened in the midst of her addiction, and she was incredibly embarrassed about it. Her reporting focuses on mental health, criminal justice and education. In 2012, former drug lab chemist Annie Dookhan was arrested for falsifying evidence recovered from alleged drug busts in the state of Massachusetts. One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. Carr chose to have an actress, Shannon O'Neill, recreate Farak's testimony in front of the grand jury with the help of the unsealed court transcripts. Carr said that Farak is a private person. 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. Kaczmarek, along with former assistant attorneys general Kris Foster and John Verner, all face possible sanctions. "No reasonablejury could conclude that this evidence is not favorable.". Sonja Farak Today: Where Is She Now? | Heavy.com Those are things that cause people, including my clients, to make choices that negatively impact themselves and others. This not only led to people getting a reprieve from prison but also filing their own lawsuits against the injustice they had to suffer. Where Is Sonja Farak From Netflix's 'How To Fix A Drug Scandal' Now, And What Happened To Her? 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. More cases connected to Sonja Farak's drug lab work expected to be While not reporting, he enjoys long-distance running. The scandal led to . Farak was born in San Diego, California and within a year her family moved to Newport, Rhode Island after her Navy father was transferred to the east coast. He went to bat for clients who were affected by both Farak and Dookhans misconduct. This immediately provoked questions about the thousands of cases in which her findings had contributed to the imprisonment of an individual. Tens of thousands of criminal drug cases were dismissed as a result of misconduct by Dookhan and Farak. Less than a year later, former drug lab technician Sonja Farak would also be arrested for tampering with the drugs she was tasked with testing. Kaczmarek had obtained the evidence at issue while she was prosecuting Farak on state charges of tampering with evidence and drug possession. In fact, she was highly accomplished before all her struggles. She grew up in Portsmouth with her sister Amy.. Fake drugs were found in their place. Linda was born on 19th July 1951. Linda was married to Stanley M Farak, who was in the US Navy. In January 2017, after years of litigation, this Court established "a new protocol" for cases affected by the egregious misconduct of another former state chemist, Annie Dookhan. It was a slippery slope from there, as Sonja went from cocaine to crack cocaine and even LSD. The civil lawsuit was one of the last tied to prosecutors' disputedhandling of the case against disgraced ex-chemist Sonja Farak, who was convicted in 2014 of ingesting drug samples she was supposed to test at the Amherst state drug lab. They are the number one team in their division, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at GBH, Transparency in Coverage Cost-Sharing Disclosures. One of the reasons for the decrepit state and standard of the Amherst lab was the lack of funds. Drug lab cases information | Mass.gov In four one-hour episodes, director Erin Lee Carr explores the case of Sonja Farak, a chemist at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts. She currently keeps a very low profile and is dealing with a pending civil case, but How To Fix A Drug Scandal director Erin Lee Carr reveals to Women's Health that Farak is sober now. Extent of Massachusetts lab's forensics failure revealed Investigators gave that information to Kaczmarek and the state AG's office,according tohearings before thestate board that disciplines attorneys. NORTHAMPTON Sonja J. Farak told a nurse at the Western Massachusetts Sonja Farak exposed - full extent of her drug use and where she is now Her mother and sister seem to show no empathy for anyone involved in the cases of Sonja Farak, and only seem to be concerned with how the . Perhaps, this desire for privacy, combined with Lindas age, is why she doesnt have much of a digital footprint. Criminal. Sonja Farak, tasked with testing confiscated drugs inMassachusetts, was high on the job for years. 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.