Drug-Addicted Chemist Tampered With As Many As 10,000 Criminal Prosecutions

Years ago, the Inquisitr reported on a drug lab chemist named Sonja Farak who was charged with tampering with evidence important to a few drug-related crimes. But newly released records from the Hampden Superior Court reveal that Sonja Farak may have ruined as many as 10,000 different criminal cases, all because she was addicted to drugs herself.

According to the Boston Globe, Sonja Farak regularly used cocaine, methamphetamine, and amphetamines — all drugs she stole from evidence in drug-related cases to feed her own addiction. For almost a decade, Farak stayed safely within her Amherst office, sampling whatever drugs came through her chemistry lab, instead of having to go onto the streets and purchase them herself.

“She obtains the drugs from her job at the state drug lab, by taking portions of samples that have come in to be tested,” said Sonja Farak’s therapist.

According to the Huffington Post, the former chemist disclosed to her therapist that the drugs were necessary for her job because they helped her “get things done and not procrastinate.” Regardless of why Sonja Farak used them, thousands of criminal prosecutions were contaminated by her theft, according to Randolph Gioia, the deputy chief counsel for the Committee on Public Counsel Services.

Even more shocking, Sonja Farak was allegedly using the drugs on the job. Not only did she steal evidence, she was processing and analyzing criminal cases while under the influence of hard narcotics.

“What we are dealing with is thousands of alleged drug samples at the Amherst lab that were analyzed for use in court by someone [Sonja Farak] who has admitted to widespread tampering of the samples,” said Gioia. “And equally importantly, while working at the lab, she admitted to being under the influence of crack cocaine, powder cocaine, methamphetamine, and other drugs.”

An investigation is being launched to determine exactly who was affected by the former chemist’s drug addiction. Sonja Farak did plead guilty to the charges in 2014 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but now it seems the charges should have been significantly more dire.

Gioia claims the many cases affected by Sonja Farak should be rendered completely void, meaning thousands of convicted criminals should technically be set free.

“All of the cases she touched are corrupted and the convictions should be thrown out.”

Documents revealed that Sonja Farak started stealing drugs from the lab as far back as 2004 and used them virtually every day until she was caught. She admitted the addiction to multiple therapists and even confessed fears of being psychotic.

How do you think the state should handle the evidence that Sonja Farak tampered with?

[Image credit: Boston Globe]