MA State Crime Lab Chemist Sonja Farak Arrested for Drug Tampering

[MuffyBee]

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/01/20/state-crime-lab-chemist-arrested-for-tampering-with-evidence-drug-possession/
State Crime Lab Chemist Arrested For Tampering With Evidence, Drug Possession
January 20, 2013

Attorney General Martha Coakley announced Sunday, Sonja Farak, 35, of Northampton, was arrested Saturday night and charged with allegedly tampering with drug evidence, possessing class A drugs and possessing class B drugs.

Coakley said the two drugs were heroin and cocaine.

“These drugs were tested, they were tested fairly,” Coakley said. “The certificates were not impeached in any way but we allege for personal use, the drugs were then taken and in her possession or used.”

Farak is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Eastern Hampshire District Court.

Coakley said she does not believe Farak’s arrest jeopardizes the reliability of drug certificates or puts into question the fairness of trials for drug defendants.

The Amherst Drug Laboratory stores and analyzes alleged controlled substances seized by local and state police.

On Friday, members of the Amherst Laboratory contacted State Police to report a discrepancy in the controlled substance inventory held in evidence, according to Coakley’s office.

State Police say after an investigation they believe Farak removed a substance from a case that had previously tested positive for cocaine and replaced it with a counterfeit substance that no longer tested positive.
More...

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/20/justice/massachusetts-chemist-charged/
Second Massachusetts state chemist accused of tampering
January 20, 2013

CNN) -- A second Massachusetts state chemist in just a few months has been accused of mishandling drug evidence, the attorney general's office said Sunday.
Sonja Farak, 35, who worked at the Massachusetts State Crime Laboratory in Amherst, was arrested at her Northampton home Saturday night by Massachusetts State Police and is facing two counts of tampering with evidence, one count of possession of a Class A substance, and one count of possession of a Class B Substance, according to Attorney General Martha Coakley. Farak remained in jail Sunday, the attorney general's office said.
"We allege that this chemist tampered with evidence, placing the integrity of that evidence in question," Coakley said in a statement.
This arrest comes just three months after the arrest of Annie Dookhan, a former Massachusetts chemist at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory in Jamaica Plain, who is charged with obstruction of justice, mishandling of drug evidence and lying about holding a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts.
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Video at Link

[MuffyBee]

See my bold.  It looks to me like there needs to be a lot more scrutiny in the state crime lab testing.  Farak's lawyer's comment about this case getting more scrutiny because of the Dookhan case may be true, but  to me, a closer look and checks and testing of other state lab workers needs to be done.   In the case of the other chemist Annie Dookhan, there may have been people charged with drug crimes that shouldn't have been, and it compromises all the other cases she's been involved in the testing, which could also free a lot of people that were involved in drug possession.  The job requires integrity.  Who is responsible for overseeing the state lab chemists? gWhat was Farak doing with the drugs?  Selling them and/or using them?  Drug test her and the others. JMHO

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Mass-chemist-pleads-not-guilty-to-tampering-4213745.php
Mass. chemist pleads not guilty to tampering
January 22, 2013

BELCHERTOWN, Mass. (AP) — A state crime lab chemist accused of tampering with evidence and stealing drugs pleaded not guilty at her arraignment Tuesday.

Sonja Farak, 35, of Northampton, was ordered held on $5,000 bail at her arraignment Tuesday in Belchertown on charges of tampering with evidence, heroin possession and cocaine possession.

Her lawyer told the judge that she has no criminal record and is helpful to neighbors with disabilities.

Farak was arrested Saturday after officials at the Amherst lab reported alleged evidence tampering. Attorney General Martha Coakley said Farak had stolen a drug that tested positive for cocaine and replaced it with another substance.

The Amherst lab where Farak worked has been closed temporarily, and its chemists were transferred to a different lab.
 ::snipping2::
"If we didn't have a case in the eastern part of the state, we wouldn't have such scrutiny in this case," said Farak's lawyer, Elaine Pourinski.

[alagary]

11/22/13  
Annie Dookhan pleads guilty in drug lab scandal
 

"Annie Dookhan, the drug analyst who tampered with evidence and jeopardized tens of thousands of criminal convictions, was sentenced Friday to three to five years in state prison, closing a sorrowful chapter for the woman at the center of a scandal that continues to plague the state’s criminal justice system.

The 36-year-old mother of a disabled child, whose marriage fell apart in the months after the scandal, softly pleaded guilty to 27 counts of misleading investigators, filing false reports, and tampering with evidence. She must also serve two years of probation and undergo mental health counseling, if needed. "

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/11/22/annie-dookhan-former-state-chemist-who-mishandled-drug-evidence-agrees-plead-guilty/7UU3hfZUof4DFJGoNUfXGO/story.html

[alagary]

not dated  Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases, Locking Countless Innocent Americans in Prison 

"The Boston Globe provided an email between Dookhan and a prosecutor with whom she had a particularly friendly relationship:

“Glad we are on the same team,” he once wrote Dookhan — including one day in May 2010 when he told her he needed a marijuana sample to weigh at least 50 pounds so that he could charge the owners with drug trafficking.

“Any help would be greatly appreciated!” he wrote, punctuating each sentence with a long string of exclamation points. “Thank you!”

Two hours later, Dookhan responded: “OK . . . definitely Trafficking, over 80 lbs.” ­Papachristos thanked her profusely."

http://filmingcops.com/corrupt-government-chemist-tampered-with-40000-cases-locking-countless-innocent-americans-in-prison/

[MuffyBee]

BBM
Sonja Farak may not have known there were going to be drugs at the party, but she could have left the party, instead of doing a few lines while she was there.   
Sometimes a person can be in violation of the terms just by association with drug users or just being where drugs are being used, let alone doing  drugs and failing a pee test.  She obviously needs to be back in jail and in treatment.  JMHO

http://chippewa.com/news/national/bail-revoked-for-mass-lab-chemist-in-drug-case/article_4e861365-ce45-5281-a5f5-cabdefd442e3.html
Bail revoked for Mass. lab chemist in drug case
December 24, 2013

Bail has been revoked for a former chemist charged with stealing drugs from the state crime lab in western Massachusetts where she worked.

A Hampshire Superior Court judge on Monday granted the prosecution's request to revoke Sonja Farak's bail because cocaine was found in her system during a random drug test.

Prosecutors say the 35-year-old Farak admitted she snorted "a few lines" at a party.

Farak's lawyer said her client didn't know drugs would be present when she was invited to the party and asked that instead of bail revocation, conditions of her release be stiffened. She'll now spend Christmas behind bars