Drug Testing Expert Was High For Eight Years

[link to news.sky.com]


A former chemist who tested drugs for Massachusetts police departments in thousands of court cases was high almost every day she went to work for eight years, investigators have said.

Sonja Farak, who worked for an Amherst laboratory which tested drug samples for police, was on methamphetamines, ketamine, cocaine, LSD and other drugs during most of her time there, even when she testified in court, according to a report.

Cyndi Roy Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey, said the information on Farak "will no doubt have implications for many cases".

Farak has admitted ingesting lab "standards" - drug samples used as benchmarks to test against substances submitted by police for testing.

Defense lawyer Luke Ryan told the Boston Herald that Farak handled around 30,000 cases while working at the lab between 2005 and 2013.

He said: "This is a statewide scandal, and I think it's going to take an enormous toll on the system."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU) said the number of criminal cases affected by Farak's misconduct could rival the approximately 40,000 cases thrown into question by the actions of Annie Dookhan, who worked at a state drug lab in Boston.

Dookhan was sentenced to at least three years in prison in 2013 after pleading guilty to faking test results in criminal cases which jeopardized thousands of convictions.

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