PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The Mirror can reveal she was forced to defend herself in court after being sued by a man claiming to have been wrongfully convicted. She was eventually convicted for her crimes in 2014 and sentenced to 18 months in prison. The impact of her case was that thousands of convictions that had been aided with evidence from the lab were overturned. However, despite serving 13 months in prison, Sonja has since faced further legal battles. Rolando Penate filed a $5.7 million lawsuit in 2017 against Sonja and 17 other defendants over his drug conviction which had hinged on tests that Farak had conducted. She had been dropping acid and smoking crack on the day that she conducted the test on Penate's case, according to court records seen by Heavy. Farak went on to represent herself in the civil case and filed her own response, with aid from attorney Susan Sachs. She wrote in her defence statement: "I agree that I began stealing and using the state lab's supply of methamphetamine oil, but I do not recall if it was late 2004 or early 2005 so I cannot agree with the year stated.""
STORY: "Sonja Farak faced new drugs civil court court case after crack jail shame and defended herself, by Film Writer Lewis Knight, published by The Mirror."
SUB-HEADING: "Netflix's true crime series How to fix a drug scandal follows the misconduct that Sonja Farak committed while abusing drugs at her job as a lab chemist."
GIST: "Infamous drug lab chemist Sonja Farak faced an agonising new court case after being released from jail for smoking crack on the job.
The Mirror can reveal she was forced to defend herself in court after being sued by a man claiming to have been wrongfully convicted.
She was eventually convicted for her crimes in 2014 and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The impact of her case was that thousands of convictions that had been aided with evidence from the lab were overturned.
However, despite serving 13 months in prison, Sonja has since faced further legal battles.
Rolando Penate filed a $5.7 million lawsuit in 2017 against Sonja and 17 other defendants over his drug conviction which had hinged on tests that Farak had conducted.
She had been dropping acid and smoking crack on the day that she conducted the test on Penate's case, according to court records seen by Heavy.
Farak went on to represent herself in the civil case and filed her own response, with aid from attorney Susan Sachs.
She wrote in her defence statement: "I agree that I began stealing and using the state lab's supply of methamphetamine oil, but I do not recall if it was late 2004 or early 2005 so I cannot agree with the year stated."
She declined to interact with the press after visiting court last year, saying "Not at this point", according to Mass Live.
Penate's lawsuit also names the former state defendant and attorney general, for he perceived them as suppressing the extent of Farak's misconduct coming to light.
The Netflix docuseries taps into the systemic failures related to the case too.
The series' director Erin Lee Carter spoke to Women's Health about how Farak contributed to the show - by meeting Carter off-camera.
Carter said: "I was personally nervous, and I came away with a deeper level of understanding about her, about the case—and I felt a lot of gratitude that she met me.
"She's somebody that sort of shies away from press. 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."
No doubt Sonja will continue to keep a low profile in light of the series' release."
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See headnote for earlier post on this Blog relating to Rolando Penate (May 28, 2016) at the link below. "Bulletin: Sonja Farak: Rolando Penate: Massachusetts; Dynamite exposée by "The Eye"..."Defense attorneys say withheld Farak notes implicate prosecutors," by Shawn Musgrave..."Massachusetts prosecutors withheld evidence of corrupt state narcotics testing for months from a defendant facing drug charges, and didn’t release it until after his conviction, according to newly surfaced documents and emails. The case of Rolando Penate has become a leading example for lawyers calling for further investigation into alleged misconduct by prosecutors who handled documents seized from Sonja Farak, the Amherst crime-lab chemist convicted of stealing and tampering with drug samples. Penate is seeking a new trial, contending the conviction should be reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct and evidence tainted by Farak. His is one of what lawyers say could be thousands of convictions questioned in the wake of the Farak scandal. The Farak documents indicate she used drugs on the very day she certified samples as heroin in Penate’s case. But when Penate’s lawyer tried to obtain the documents — not certain what was in them — before his client’s 2013 trial, he was rebuffed by state prosecutors who said the papers were “irrelevant” according to emails included in investigative reports unsealed earlier this month. At the time of Penate’s trial, the state Attorney General’s Office contended Farak’s misdeeds dated back only as far as 2012."..."Prosecutors have an obligation to give the defense exculpatory evidence – including anything that could weaken evidence against defendants. Compromised drug samples often fit the definition."... Defense attorney Luke Ryan describes finding undisclosed evidence that was seized from Sonja Farak’s car, as well as how he determined that the documents were from 2011. “It would be difficult to overstate the significance of these documents,” Ryan wrote to the Attorney General’s Office two days later. State prosecutors hadn’t provided this evidence to other district attorneys’ offices contending with the Farak fallout, either. Two weeks after Ryan’s discovery, the Attorney General’s Office shipped nearly 300 pages of previously undisclosed materials to local prosecutors around the state. “Not only did they not turn these documents over, but I wasn’t aware that they existed,” said Frank Flannery, who was the Hampden County assistant district attorney assigned to appeals following Farak’s arrest. “At the very least, we expected that we would get everything they collected in their case against Farak.” Flannery, now in private practice, said the substance abuse worksheets are “clearly relevant” to defendants challenging Farak’s analysis. Four months after Ryan found the worksheets, Judge Kinder compelled release of additional drug treatment records, which indicated Farak used a variety of drugs that she stole from the lab for years. Penate and other defendants are asking see all of Foster’s emails regarding Farak and other materials relating to the handling of evidence in the chemist's case. A hearing on their motions is scheduled next month."
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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;
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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The entire story can be read at:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/sonja-farak-defended-herself-court-21806978
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