Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Extraordinary Revelations; Sonja Farak: Massachusetts: Attorney General's report made public earlier today by court order finds that the former chemist was dipping into samples for at least eight years to feed her habit -- including even cooking crack cocaine inside the lab itself - and the Boston Herald story says, "The new findings could potentially jeopardize thousands more cases than officials originally thought," and suggests that the "new findings could potentially jeopardize thousands more cases than officials originally thought."..."The determination and broadening scope of Farak's misconduct has shades of the state's other drug lab scandal involving disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan, whose years-long tampering of evidence at the Hinton Laboratory possibly tainted as many as 40,000 cases."..."By 2011, Farak had "exhausted" the standard samples for the methamphetamine, amphetamine, and ketamine inside the lab, while leaving the cocaine standard "substantially diminished." She also began using cocaine directly inside the lab, including at her own workstation and in some cases while other employees were present, investigators found. It progressed to the point that in 2012 when Farak was cooking crack cocaine inside the state lab after normal hours or when she worked overtime, dissolving the powdered cocaine in water, adding baking soda, and heating it up to form crack. "All told, she estimated that she was smoking crack ten to twelve times a day," the report notes. "Farak testified that the other Lab employees never discovered what she was doing." Farak testified during a grand jury she even got high before a 2012 interview with state police after the department had taken over the lab in the wake of the Dookhan scandal. Farak said she smoked crack cocaine in the morning and again at "lunchtime" before a scheduled 1 p.m. interview, but over the course of the 15- to 20-minute interview, "there were no suspicions ever raised about her use of drugs," she testified. She said she also got high before testifying in court on behalf of cases in which she tested drugs. In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts said the magnitude of Farak's misconduct "rivals" that of Dookhan's, adding that "the twin Massachusetts scandals have no known parallel elsewhere in the country." "There is only one sensible response to these revelations: promptly notify the people who were denied due process, undo their wrongful convictions, and rethink the unjust war on drugs," Matthew Segal, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said. "These scandals, and the years it has taken to uncover them, demand a remedy for the thousands of criminal defendants who were convicted based on false and tainted evidence."" (Must, Must Read. HL);


STORY: "AG report exposes ex-state chemist's reckless drug abuse," by reporter Matt Stout, published by The Boston Herald on May 3, 2016.

GIST: A former drug-addicted chemist at an Amherst state lab was dipping into samples for at least eight years to feed her habit -- including even cooking crack cocaine inside the lab itself -- a newly released state investigation found. The new findings could potentially jeopardize thousands more cases than officials originally thought. The findings, disclosed in a report filed by Attorney General Maura Healey's office and made public today under a court order, details years of thefts and drug use by former chemist Sonja Farak, who was convicted in 2014 of tampering with evidence and sentenced to 18 months in prison. It comes after defense attorneys in other drug cases challenged that her misconduct went far beyond the handful of cases on which she was prosecuted, prompting the Supreme Judicial Court to determine in April 2015 that the state did not do enough to probe the full scope of her misconduct. Healey's office, as a result, launched an investigation and convened a grand jury. It ultimately determined that Farak began taking drugs from the lab "on a fairly regular basis beginning in late 2004 or early 2005" through her arrest in January 2013. The determination and broadening scope of Farak's misconduct has shades of the state's other drug lab scandal involving disgraced chemist Annie Dookhan, whose years-long tampering of evidence at the Hinton Laboratory possibly tainted as many as 40,000 cases. Cyndi Roy Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Healey said it will now be up to the court and district attorney offices to determine the full scope of cases possibly impacted by Farak, but defense attorneys have said it could be in the thousands. The chemist, who has since been released from prison, was granted immunity as part of the investigation, and thus will not face any additional criminal charges, despite the findings, Gonzales said..........According to the report -- dated April 1 -- Farak started by dipping into the lab's methamphetamine "standard," a sample chemists use as a benchmark to test against substances submitted by police for testing. By the time she was arrested, she had moved on to ketamine, LSD and cocaine samples that had been submitted to the lab -- and all without detection of her colleagues, supervisors and, in some cases police, Healey's office found. By 2011, Farak had "exhausted" the standard samples for the methamphetamine, amphetamine, and ketamine inside the lab, while leaving the cocaine standard "substantially diminished." She also began using cocaine directly inside the lab, including at her own workstation and in some cases while other employees were present, investigators found. It progressed to the point that in 2012 when Farak was cooking crack cocaine inside the state lab after normal hours or when she worked overtime, dissolving the powdered cocaine in water, adding baking soda, and heating it up to form crack. "All told, she estimated that she was smoking crack ten to twelve times a day," the report notes. "Farak testified that the other Lab employees never discovered what she was doing." Farak testified during a grand jury she even got high before a 2012 interview with state police after the department had taken over the lab in the wake of the Dookhan scandal. Farak said she smoked crack cocaine in the morning and again at "lunchtime" before a scheduled 1 p.m. interview, but over the course of the 15- to 20-minute interview, "there were no suspicions ever raised about her use of drugs," she testified. She said she also got high before testifying in court on behalf of cases in which she tested drugs.  In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts said the magnitude of Farak's misconduct "rivals" that of Dookhan's, adding that "the twin Massachusetts scandals have no known parallel elsewhere in the country." "There is only one sensible response to these revelations: promptly notify the people who were denied due process, undo their wrongful convictions, and rethink the unjust war on drugs," Matthew Segal, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said. "These scandals, and the years it has taken to uncover them, demand a remedy for the thousands of criminal defendants who were convicted based on false and tainted evidence.""

The entire story can be found at:


http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/herald_bulldog/2016/05/ag_report_exposes_ex_state_chemists_reckless_drug_abuse

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com;

Harold Levy;

Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;