Sonja Farak: Defendant Rafael Rodriguez died of drug overdose and was afraid of going back to prison
An ex-lab chemist Sonja Farak's negligence and misdeeds shocked US when she was arrested in 2013 for stealing and using drugs from the lab where she worked.
Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. A new documentary by Netflix 'How to Fix a Drug Scandal' looks at the repercussions and aftermath of Farak's operations and how it shined a light on the biggest injustice of truth. It also looks at all those who were affected by Farak's actions.
The case against Sonja Farak
Farak was arrested after her supervisor noticed that there were two drug samples missing and grew suspicious when they were found at her desk. The testing on the drug samples came back negative even though she had classified it as positive which led to her arrest for tampering.
Farak's job was to test drug samples that were taken from people and verify whether they were real drugs or not. Any negligence on her part would lead to the wrongful conviction of a person. She had also admitted to using drugs while on the job and had confessed to taking methamphetamine, amphetamine, ketamine, LSD, cocaine, crack.
Her admission to using drugs led to many questions such as the accuracy of the convictions made, the duration of her drug abuse, and what was to be done with those convicted based on test results by Farak.
The Defendants:
Rafael Rodriguez
People had spent years in prison for convictions that were eventually overturned. They also lost a large part of their lives based on wrongful drug convictions by Farak. Rafael Rodriguez had done time for petty crimes and become addicted to heroin. He then met his wife, Madelyn Vazquez, in 2002 and managed to go to rehab and have a fresh start.
In 2005, Vazquez moved herself and their young daughter to Chicopee in Springfield and had a second child in 2006. Rodriguez became a stay at home dad and was clean and sober for four years straight. However, he got set up after a man pestered him for drugs for weeks when Rodriguez relented and called a friend.
The buyer, however, had been a snitch who had been working off a drug bust with the police. With the deal, Rodriguez had been due to make $50 when he was charged with possession-with-intent and took a five-year plea deal in 2011. While in prison, he slipped into depression and started drug abuse all over again.
It had been 15 months that he had been in jail when Farak who had tested the drug sample in his case was arrested. District attorney Luke Ryan, who fought hard for Rodriguez and Penate was able to prove that Farak had been using drugs since 2004.
Rodriguez was released from prison in 2015 on Easter to the delight of his loving family. For a year he looked for some work but was not able to really find anything. In 2016, Rodriguez overdosed in his home and died after being panicked and depressed about the uncertainty of going back to prison.
Rolando Penate
Rolando Penate managed to survive being tortured in the prisons of Cuba when he was only 11-years-old and made his way to the United States in pursuit of a better life. However, he had to take to the streets to make ends meet and was arrested with dealing $20 worth of drugs and charged with 13 counts.
He decided to fight the charges and sued Farak who had tested the drugs in his case while being high on LSD that she had taken from the lab. His lawyer Luke Ryan who had also represented Rodriguez had demanded that the testing data from the chemist who had examined the samples.
That certificate signed by Farak sent Penate to jail for five and a half years. It was also later discovered that Farak was high that day that she saw "colors swaying in the wind".
Aftermath
After the SJC ordered a new and improved investigation to the attorney general's office, Ryan was able to access the files which showed the drug use had gone on longer than the timeline mentioned. This led to the dismissal of approximately 35,000 cases that Farak had tested the drug samples for.
'How To Fix A Drug Scandal' is now streaming on Netflix.