(413) 586-4800lryan@strhlaw.com, DanielN. Marx Even though Farak found a job after graduation and was settled down with her partner, she continued to struggle with depression and felt like a stranger in her body. Since her release, she has kept a low profile and managed to stay out of the public . Inwardly though, Sonja Farak was striving. 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. This documentary mini-series follows the stories of these two drug lab . He said he feels she suffered from both a chemical dependency and a psychological dependence to the drugs. Specifically speaking, she played on the line on offense and defense. They were all rendered unacceptable. The newest true-crime docu-series on Netflix that requires to be on your to-watch list is How to Fix a Drug Scandal, a shocking glance into how two drug lab chemists deliberately changed the proof over the course of many years and affected tens of thousands of court cases. Faraks findings, and occasional testimony at court about her testing, was used as proof to convict the person who had been arrested. How to Fix a Drug Scandal is available now on Netflix. He recommended she lose her law license for two years; the Office of Bar Counsel later argued Kaczmarek should be disbarred. Sonja Farak in How to Fix a Drug Scandal. Vizaca.com participates in many affiliate marketing programs & sponsored content which means we get paid commissions on products purchased through our links to retail websites. 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 masters degree in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts. Sincevery few people willingly dabble in drugs, its more of a question to ask why is this person using drugs to begin with? This is even further legitimized when it's revealed Sonja Farak was dealing with depression since she was 16 years old. 2023 Cable News Network. Sonja Farak during her arraignment at Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown in 2013. Not only was she under the impact of drugs while at work for about nine years, but she was also under the impact when she took the stand in 2013. Farak worked for the Amherst Drug Lab in Massachusetts for 9 years when she was convicted of stealing and using them. In 2013, Massachusetts State Police arrested 35-year-old crime drug lab chemist Sonja Farak for tampering with evidence: and that was only the beginning. Get the latest headlines, releases and insider-gossip direct to your inbox with our Binge-worthy newsletter. In the . Her first doc was Thought Crimes: The Case . She had also kept a detailed daily record of her substance abuse for a drug counsellor, which noted that she used. Farak made crack cocaine at the Lab. A .mass.gov website belongs to an official government organization in Massachusetts. She said it gave me the desired effects. If you would like to continue helping us improve Mass.gov, join our user panel to test new features for the site. In fact, Farak was highly achieved before all her battles. She was caught with evidence files under her desk, including unsealed envelopes . A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested for stealing and using drugs from a laboratory. The case notoriously involved a rare one . So she turned to drugs, which were incredibly easy to procure. (857) 321-8360dmarx@fickmarx.comwfick@fickmarx.com. Where is Sonja Farak now? Read More: Where is Sonja Farak Sister Now? As per her own court testimony, as revealed in the docu-series, Farak began working at a state drug lab in Amherst in 2004. Sonja had stolen samples from her colleagues' tests and amended the lab database to cover her tracks. Did you encounter any technical issues? One of the reasons for the decrepit state and standard of the Amherst lab was the lack of funds. In the first episode, audiences are revealed a very important fact about television - drug chemists arent actually a thing on television. Sonja Farak from How to Fix a Drug Scandal (Photo: Netflix) By Alex Finnis. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much In How to Fix a Drug Scandal, there are some funny moments, surprising details, and shocking facts that are interesting, but hard to catch. With her response, she only listed a Hatfield, Mass. But what happened next to the former lab chemist? Kaczmarek, along with former assistant attorneys general Kris Foster and John Verner, all face possible sanctions. Her medical records included notes from Faraks therapist in Amherst, Anna Kogan. Mass.gov is a registered service mark of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Based on the investigation, authorities allege that Farak tampered with drug evidence at the lab. You can find copies of the Dookhan Notice Letterbelow. For How to Fix a Drug Scandal, the story is about two women who start the scandals. Furthermore, she said she has been grasping with how the docuseries may have affected Faraks life. Prior to working at the Amherst Drug Lab, Farak had been a chemist at the Hinton Drug Lab from 2003 to 2004. . While this series isn't fiction, it would've passed this infamous test if it was. The pair's actions saw around 44,000 drug convictions overturned and resulted in prison sentences for the pair. Another chemist was accused of tampering, affecting 34,000 drug cases, in October. It shows the true story of Sonja Farak, a former Massachusetts state drug laboratory chemist who was arrested in 2013 for using the drugs she was supposed to be researching and tampering with the evidence to cover her tracks up. And yet, due to their actions, they did injure people and they did inflict a lot of pain, not just on a couple of people, but on thousands. How to Fix a Drug Scandal is an American true crime documentary miniseries that was released on Netflix on April 1, 2020. Penate alleged Kaczmarek's actions violated his "Brady rights," which require prosecutors to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. Published Jul 1, 2020. Since then, she has kept a low profile. Farak has stayed sober, according to the docuseries. Every single day, Farak would get high; the chemist used the bathroom to smoke crack and the lab facilities to cook more. She received an 18-month jail sentence. She married Lee after starting her job, but their marriage was rocky. 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. The number is. In 2014, former Amherst drug lab chemist Sonja Farak was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison after it was discovered that she stole and used drugs that she was entrusted to test. In December 2011, Springfield, Massachusetts police arrested Rolando Penate for allegedly selling heroin, and the drugs were sent off to be tested by then-35-year-old drug lab chemist Sonja Farak . The show also delves into the issues of the state in discovering and reporting on the extent of the cases that were affected by Faraks actions. Sonja Farak was a chemist at a state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 2005 to 2013. Her interest soon led to a regular drug habit. 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. Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal Story: 5 Fast Facts. She received an 18-month jail sentence. 1. When testing Penates sample a second time, Farak had taken LSD and the sensation of colors in the wind left her unable to function for work. Still, when Penates lawyers inquired about Faraks drug usage, the Massachusetts state prosecutors refused to give up information. Now that her case has been brought into the public eye again since Netflix released How To Fix a Drug Scandal, many will be wondering what has happened to her. The drug lab technician was sent to prison for 18 months, but was released in 2015. While what she did was immoral, many have been sympathetic to her plight. The latest true crime offering from Netflix is the documentary series How to Fix a Drug Scandal. It dives into the story of Sonja Farak, a chemist who worked for a Massachusetts state drug lab and got arrested for taking the drugs she was testing as well as tampering with evidence. According to IMDb, shes appeared in HBOs High Maintenance and will star as Angie in Make America Bake Again, which is currently in production. In 2019, she was seen attending a civil court case relating to her, but she's otherwise kept a . Copyright 2023 by Vizaca. In "How to Fix a Drug Scandal," a new four-part Netflix docuseries, documentary filmmaker Erin Lee Carr presents the stories of Massachusetts drug lab chemists Annie Dookhan and Sonja Farak, and . I find that everyone needs to be given a second chance.". Would love your thoughts, please comment. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Thank you! 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. I was totally controlled by my addiction," she revealed in the documentary. Thats when she found a home working at a lab in the Morrill Science Building on the UMass Amherst campus. The civil lawsuit was one of the last tied to prosecutors' disputed handling of the case against disgraced ex-chemist Sonja Farak, who was convicted in 2014 of ingesting drug samples she was . The medical records stated that she did not have an existing drug problem that was amplified by her access to more substances. As the docuseries represents, she confessed to a therapist in 2009 that she had been striving with addiction problems since 2005. The feedback will only be used for improving the website. She later pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the lab and was sentenced in 2014 to serve 18 months . Rick is a Massachusetts native and graduated from Boston University. 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