Sonja Farak: 35,000 criminal cases were dismissed because this drug lab chemist was hooked to meth and coke
A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory.
Farak was a former lab chemist at a lab in Amherst, Massachusetts and was convicted of stealing and using drugs from the lab where she worked. Netflix's documentary titled 'How to Fix a Drug Scandal' looks into the case of Sonja Farak and how she was part of a much larger problem than anyone could have imagined. The documentary which will release on April 1 delves into the complicated and horrifying case of Sonja Farak.
The Case
Sonja Farak was at the center of a drug scandal and also admitted to using the drugs that she had to test and analyze. Farak's job was to test drug samples that were taken from people and verify whether they were real drugs or not. This result would then be used in the court to convict the person involved with the drugs.
Farak was caught in 2013 when the supervisor at the Amherst lab was informed that two samples were missing. Upon searching through Farak's desk to see whether she had them or was working on them, the supervisor James Hanchett found a tub of drawers where the two samples had been kept.
The samples also tested as negative compared to the results that Farak had written. This led to an investigation into her which led to the discovery of drugs in her car.
Sonja Farak's addiction
Farak tested a wide variety of drugs because of her job in a place with minimal co-workers and no structure. With their substandard wages and bad work environment, there was easy access to drugs and Farak admitted to having tried drugs like methamphetamine, LSD, cocaine and crack among others.
In the documentary, she admits to using a pipette to take methamphetamine from the refrigerator which would give her more energy to work. The details initially stated that officials indicated that she had only started tampering with drugs in 2012, a year before her arrest.
The attorney general at the time, Martha Coakley, had said in a statement, "On its face, the allegations against this chemist do not implicate the reliability of testing done or fairness to defendants." Sonja was sentenced to 18 months in jail though Northampton attorney Luke Ryan felt like she had been involved with tampering drugs on the job for a long time.
The Aftermath
The case of Sonja Farak goes a lot deeper. There were many obstacles for attorney Luke Ryan who had been trying to get evidence from the attorney general's office to prove that Farak had been on drugs for a lot longer than people believed.
The attorney general's office was in possession of certain documents found in Farak's car though Ryan was not given access to them. The attorney general’s office said the only documents in the car were lab records which were not relevant to his client’s drug conviction — and that allowing him to view the evidence could impact the ongoing case against Farak.
Ryan had been lobbying hard to get the evidence and records which could prove his clients and others should get new trials. 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.