Sunday, October 6, 2013

Sonja Farak: Massachusetts; Yet another ramification! Drug defendant Rolando Penate's lawyer is seeking access to evidence used by the state to prosecute chemist Sonja Farak - including "quite a bit of correspondence regarding how bad is this scandal?" Masslive.com


STORY: "Lawyer for drug defendant Rolando Penate seeks access to evidence used by state to prosecute chemist Sonja Farak,"  by reporter Buffy Spencer, published by the Republican on October 2, 2013.

GIST:  "Attorney Luke Ryan argued in Hampden Superior Court Wednesday on behalf of drug defendant Rolando Penate he should be able to look at all the evidence - such as drugs, drug bags and lab envelopes - being used by the state to prosecute former state chemist Sonja Farak. Ryan also wants to look at Farak’s personnel file to see if there were problems earlier than the state contends and whether she was getting adequate supervision. He wants to see if she was asked in her application for work at the lab if she had a drug problem. Farak, 35, of Northampton, faces trial early next year in Hampshire Superior Court. She is charged with four counts of evidence tampering, four counts of larceny of drugs and two count of possession of cocaine.........Ryan also asked Kinder to make the state turn over to him inter-agency communications - such as emails - sent within the Attorney General’s office regarding the scope of Farak’s conduct and the Amherst lab. He also wants communications between that agency and other state agencies about Farak. He said he expects there was quite a bit of correspondence regarding “how bad is this scandal?”Foster said Kaczmarek and State Police Sgt. Joseph Ballou told her there was nothing in emails or other communications that would be a “smoking gun” or that has not already been disclosed.

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/10/lawyer_for_drug_defendant_rola.html

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.

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