Former Massachusetts assistant attorney general Anne Kaczmarek prosecuted Farak in 2013. Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal tells the story of two women whose actions brought to light the negligence of the system that is supposed to deliver justice to everyone. While I certainly think her longstanding refusal to acknowledge what she was doing comprised the rights of lots of people, I have sympathy for a human being who is struggling with a very difficult addiction, he said. 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.". She worked there for a year but soon realized she wouldnt make enough money there in the Boston area to buy a house. Jasmine Gomez is the Commerce Editor at Womens Health, where she cover the best product recommendations across beauty, health, lifestyle, fitness, and more. The new four-part Netflix series tracks chemists Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan, whose convictions for misconduct led to over 40,000 drug convictions being dismissed by the courts. Soon after, the state police took over the control, and the lab was moved to Springfield, where it remains under the supervision of the state police. By some accounts, she is 68 years old. She shone academically as well. 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 2019, she was seen leaving the Springfield Federal Court but declined to comment on the status of the case. The responsibility of the mess that she created should also rest upon the shoulders of her workplace that allowed her the opportunity to indulge so freely in drugs in the first place. Furthermore, she said she has been grappling with how the docuseries may have affected Faraks life. Thousands of convictions in thousands cases tainted by former state chemist Sonja Farak were ordered for dismissal today, marking a victory for justice after litigation from the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) who is the plaintiff and institutional petitioner on behalf of all parties impacted, and the law firm Fick & Marx LLP. Join us. She played as the starting guard for Portsmouth High Schools freshman team. Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal Story: 5 Fast Facts. Powered by. Sonja Farak was released on parole in 2016 and has remained out of the spotlight ever since. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. A judge will hold a final hearing on the settlement in October. The move comes months after the American Civil Liberties Union and the state's public defender agency asked the state's highest court to throw out all of the cases tainted by Sonja Farak, who . Investigators gave that information to Kaczmarek and the state AG's office,according tohearings before thestate board that disciplines attorneys. To find out if your case was affected by either Ms. Dookhan or Ms. Farak, you can call a toll-free hotline operated by defense lawyers with the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the public defender agency in Massachusetts. Kaczmarek, along with former assistant attorneys general Kris Foster and John Verner, all face possible sanctions. How to Fix A Drug Scandal takes a one-woman issue in a crumbling police drug lab and follows the way it blew up an entire legal system. However, we have been able to figure out that Linda works at the Protective Service Occupations. Since then, she has kept a low profile. She cried as she was sentenced, Mass Live reported in 2014. She received an 18-month jail sentence. She said it gave me the desired effects. The cocaine, found in an unsealed, completed drug-testing kit, tested negativemeaning Farak had seemingly replaced the formerly "positive" drugs with falsified substances. 1 Indeed, this Court's decisions concerning the Hinton drug lab scandal compel that remedy. This achievement earned her a full page layout in the local paper and some local TV news coverage. Her supply came from work itself; she would take drugs and use them and then replace the evidence bags with fake drugs. She was sentenced to 18 months behind bars, followed by five years of probation and 500 hours of community services, the same year. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Sonja Farak. Netflix's latest true-crime series, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, dives deep into a shocking Massachusetts scandal, one that started in the humble confines of an underfunded drug testing lab and ended with an entire system in question. 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. Carr said shes been horrified to read angry reactions towards Farak over Twitter. 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 . . The docuseries did note that Farak is still a fan of the Patriots. Damning evidence reveals drug lab chemist Sonja Farak's addictions. While attending college, she met her longtime partner Nikki Lee. Westcott has been in recovery from heroin addiction for nearly nine years. 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. She purchased a home there in 2006. Who is Sonja Farak? Her parents were described as loving, and somewhat strict. Farak was in her mid-thirties at the time. With the lab's ample drug supply, she was able to sneak the drug each day from a jug that resided in the shared workspace. In high school, she nearly died by suicide, and in college Farak was . That is as much public exposure as shes opened herself up to since her release from jail. 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. 3 Farak Defendants. In 2017, Rolando Penate filed a $5.7 million lawsuit against 18 defendants, including Farak. But Westcott said she paid a variety of fees, such as $65 monthly probation costs and $500 to get her drivers license, before the SJC dismissed her three possession cases in 2018. In high school, Farak became the first girl to play high school football in the state of Rhode Island and made local headlines. ( 2020-04-01) How to Fix a Drug Scandal is an American true crime documentary miniseries that was released on Netflix on April 1, 2020. Linda was born on 19th July 1951. Where Is Sonja Farak From Netflix's 'How To Fix A Drug Scandal' Now, And What Happened To Her? She really did, at certain times, tried to stop doing this but couldnt.. Rick Sobey is a multimedia, general assignment reporter -- covering breaking news, politics and more across the region. 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 . Sonja Farak: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know. As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. 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She had been accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress in addition to the conspiracy to violate [Penates] civil rights.. It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. The Mirror can reveal she was forced to defend herself in. More than 24,000 convictions have been overturned as a result of her case. Sonja Farak is the former state drug lab chemist featured in Netflix's "How to Fix a Scandal." She started doing drugs almost as soon as she took the job at Amherst, but it was after years of negligence on her superiors part that her actions finally came to light. Where is Farak today? She has since been one of 18 defendants facing a lawsuit by Rolando Penate, who claims they. (Netflix) A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. A lead plaintiff in the class action suit, Nicole Westcott, 34, of Belchertown, said she doesn't know exactly how much money she stands to receive if a judge signs off on the settlement later this fall. Criminal. It is important to point out that Sonja Farak was considered a typical citizen as she did not fit the stereotype of a drug offender . that she spent a lot of time thinking about Farak and trying to humanize her. The place was closed as soon as Faraks crimes came to light. According to a Rolling Stone profile on Farak and the case, the former chemist has not been heard from since her release. I want to be accepted like one of them, Sonja said during the local news segment, included in the docuseries. In Netflixs docuseries we get to hear from her sister, and mother, who give us an insight into Sonjas life, and how her actions impacted them. 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. Shes a high school graduate. This not only led to people getting a reprieve from prison but also filing their own lawsuits against the injustice they had to suffer. YouTube It appears that Linda has Christianity listed as her religion, and is a Caucasian woman, whos registered as a Democrat. The fees eligible for reimbursement include probation fees, victim witness fees, GPS monitoring costs and driver's license reinstatement fees. March 9, 2021 Greater Boston 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. She's no longer in prison, as Farak has served her sentence. Her medical records included notes from Faraks therapist in Amherst, Anna Kogan. Sonja Farak was a chemist for a state crime lab in Massachusetts. 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. On the surface, their crimes dont seem as injurious and they dont seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others. Before her sentencing, Farak failed a drug test while. 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. Kaczmarek also oversaw the prosecution for the attorney general's office in that case. Now, you might be curious about where Sonjas mother, Linda, is at the moment. 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. Published Jul 1, 2020. After weeks of hearings, a "special hearing officer" selected by the board recommended potential sanctions against them all. When Farak was arrested,former Attorney General Martha Coakley told the public investigators believed Farak tampered with drugs at the lab for only a few months. Instead, the documentary . I think it's very painful to be Sonja and I regret having to advocate against her, Ryan said in the docuseries. 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. In January 2014, she pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and drug possession. I mean she could have been my client.". Support GBH. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Directed by Erin Lee Carr, the four-part Netflix docuseries depicts the criminal investigation of two drug analysts - Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan - who manipulated the legal process for self-serving reasons. 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. "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. Farak, a chemist, was later convicted of stealing drugs from the state lab in Amherst. "If she puts her mind to something, she can do it, Amy told the producers of How to Fix a Drug Scandal.. The state and attorneys for some of the defendants agreed to a $14 million settlement to reimburse 31,000 defendants for post conviction-related costs, such as probation and parole fees, drug analysis and GPS monitoring. Email; Facebook Tweet Listen 7:58. "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. Because she did so, Plaintiff served more than five years in a state prison.". AG Healey has also dedicated her efforts to finding fair resolutions for all involved, including advocating for the dismissal of convictions impacted by (Annie) Dookhan and Faraks crimes, and ensuring certain fines and fees are returned to defendants whose criminal charges have been dismissed.. 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, . Rick is a Massachusetts native and graduated from Boston University. The Amherst Bulletin reported that her medical records indicated that she only became addicted to drugs once she started working at the lab, in 2004. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Chemists Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan tampered with evidence and even used narcotics. One of the reasons for the decrepit state and standard of the Amherst lab was the lack of funds. Obviously, after a blunder of such scale, no one would want their samples checked from the same lab. The disclosure of potentially exculpatory evidence was particularly important, the report reads. It was a slippery slope from there, as Sonja went from cocaine to crack cocaine and even LSD. Stream GBH's Award-Winning Content For Parents And Children. The four-part documentary focuses on Dookhan and an independent case of fraud in the drug lab by Sonja Farak. While Farak kept her drug use isolated to work only at first, her use still spilled out. After Faraks arrest in 2013, police found pages of mental health worksheets in her car indicating she'd struggled with drug addiction since at least 2011. Asked what she thought Farak would want the public to know now, Carr says, "I think that she cares about [the idea] that addiction doesn't always look the same on everybody, and I think that she really struggled with letting people down. She really did, at certain times, tried to stop doing this but couldnt.. As shown in the docuseries, she testified that her childhood was normal and middle class. Original release. Kaczmarek argued for qualified immunity after she was sued by Rolando Penate, who spent five years in prison on drug charges in which the evidence in his case was tested by Farak. Why did she do that and where has it left her? More than 24,000 convictions in 16,449 cases tainted by former state chemist Sonja Farak have been dismissed in a court case brought by the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Committee of Public Counsel Services (CPCS), and law firm Fick & Marx LLP. 45 Year Olds. In fact, she was highly accomplished before all her struggles. The people who were involved in this will finally get justice, Westcott said. Share. ", "She isn't on drugs anymore, and I think that that is incredible," Carr, who also directed the true-crime documentaries. If the judge determines that it is fair, a settlement administrator will send out checks. Sonja Farak, a chemist with a longterm mental health struggle, is the catalyst of the story, but it doesn't end with her. Farak saw Kogan in 2009 and 2010, and her therapist wrote: She obtains the drugs from her job at the state drug lab, by taking portions of samples that have come in to be tested., Kogan also wrote that Farak told her she had taken methamphetamines at another lab in an old job, but she didnt get much from it. Kogan wrote that after moving to western [Massachusetts] for her job at the state drug lab, [Farak] tried it again and really liked it.
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