Massachusetts crime lab scandal explodes

Chemistry World ^ | 4 April 2013 | Rebecca Trager

[neverdem]

More than 300 convicted inmates have been released from Massachusetts state prisons in the US as a result of the September 2012 arrest and subsequent indictment of Annie Dookhan, who worked in a Department of Public Health state laboratory and allegedly falsified evidence used in criminal cases. Now the scandal has grown with the prosecution of another Massachusetts state lab chemist for tampering with evidence and stealing drugs seized as evidence.

Sonja Farak, who worked at the Massachusetts State Crime Laboratory in Amherst, was charged with tampering with four drug samples stored at the lab on 1 April. In two of the cases, authorities allege that Farak mixed drug evidence samples with counterfeit drugs to hide her theft, and in the two other cases the samples could not be found. She was also charged with cocaine possession.

Attorney general Martha Coakley said that Farak – who was originally arrested in January, just months after the Dookhan scandal broke – ‘violated the trust placed in her’.

Question marks ‘Every case she handled now has a huge question mark around it,’ says Josh Lee, a criminal defense attorney and founding partner of law firm Ward, Lee and Coats. ‘Such an individual is not going to be concerned with good laboratory practices or proper evidence handling and testing,’ he adds.

If Farak was adulterating drug samples to cover up her theft, as she is accused of doing, then that could have influenced the weight of these samples and changed the crime that suspects were charged with. ‘Changing weights changes crimes and can, for example, elevate something from drug possession to drug trafficking,’ Lee notes.

Farak once worked at the same lab as Dookhan – the William Hinton State Lab in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. That lab has been closed since August, while the Amherst...

[Lurker]

This stupid “war” on drugs needs to end now. It’s destroying the entire American judicial system and the Constitution with it.

[editor-surveyor]

What can one expect from Taxachewshits?

[Viennacon]

“We need more infrastructure. Like China!” - Sitting Bull

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Stop judging that poor woman! After all, this is Massachusetts.

[SunkenCiv]

Obviously they’re victims of the evil patriarchy. /s

http://www.google.com/images?q=Annie+Dookhan

http://www.google.com/images?q=Sonja+Farak

[neverdem]

FReepmail me if you want to be on or off my Massachussets list.

I never noticed anyone with a Massachussets ping list. I'm not from Massachussets, but I'm trying to start a list for each state that includes a FReeper with a state ping list for that state if that state doesn't have one already.

If I see a story about Massachussets, I want to let you know. This is not expected to be a high volume ping list.

Do any of you have a state ping list for Massachussets? Do any of you want to volunteer and take my Massachussets list with the intent to grow it? Let me know via FReepmail.

[The Working Man]

This stupid “war” on drugs needs to end now. It’s destroying the entire American judicial system and the Constitution with it.

---

I concur!

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

As bad as drugs are, you can only help people that will help themselves. The cure is obviously worse and far more expensive than the disease. All you can really do is limit employment and government benefits on drug use. Prison is not a deterrent.

Voluntary commitment is the only option.

[AU72]

My daughter had her car stolen, but it was recovered within 8 hours with a quantity of drugs. The person who stole was charged for intent to distribute but that case never got to court as the evidence was tainted in that crime lab.

[Lurker]

I’ve seen drug addiction up close and personal, believe me. I strongly believe that deliberately making oneself more stupid than you already are intentionally is a very poor long-term survival strategy. And you’re completely correct.

Make these people suffer for their folly as early and as harshly as possible but not one nickel of support for them. Legalize the crap and sell it in 5 pound sacks at Safeway at market prices, just like booze. If they can pay for it, fine. Smoke, snort, inject, or suppository yourself to Kingdom come. But if you OD or get sick, you die in the street. The only concession “society” makes is tossing your corpse into a standard garbage truck for a trip to the landfill.

In about a year all of the idiots would be dead and the rest of us could go on with our lives.

[AD from SpringBay]

This would be a terrific way to end one of the CSI shows. Have all the results of past seasons be overthrown because one of the main characters was corrupt.

[Gay State Conservative]

CORRUPTION AND LAWLESSNESS IN MASSACHUSETTS? COLOR ME STUNNED!

[Gay State Conservative]

This stupid “war” on drugs needs to end now. It’s destroying the entire American judicial system and the Constitution with it.

Having worked in the ER of a large,big city,hospital I cannot stress how wrong you are.I could tell you story,after story,after story,after story....after story..of the devastation that drugs cause the users,their families (particularly wives and children) and total strangers that would make the hair on your toes curl.I say we adopt the drug laws of Singapore.You're caught with more than a set amount of a drug and they *hang* you.They don't care if you're Singaporean,Malaysian,Indonesian,Aussie,Brit or American.THEY HANG YOU.And there are no 20 year long appeals scams either.

[kabumpo]

unfortunately that would never happen. Because worse that the war on drugs, is the “recovery” industry, which has forced drug addiction to be characterized as a disease - so just as the government isn’t going to let people with AIDS, etc. lie around in the streets dying, the drug users are not going to be left to their own devices to sink or swim.

[kabumpo]

I agree with you.

[MasterGunner01]

I’m shocked! Shocked!!

[JustSayNoToNannies]

I could tell you story,after story,after story,after story....after story..of the devastation that drugs cause the users,their families (particularly wives and children) and total strangers that would make the hair on your toes curl.

That devastation has come about despite the War On Drugs - and there's no evidence that it would increase if the War On Drugs ended.

And if you were paying attention you have the same stories about the legal drug alcohol; should that drug be banned?

[Ken H]

Heroin Makes Comeback Among New Addicts in Singapore

October 17, 2011

Heroin abuse among first-time offenders surged to a record high last year, raising fears that the drug is now luring younger users in Singapore.

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/international/heroin-makes-comeback-among-new-addicts-in-singapore/472143

[IronJack]

Is there any state in the Union more corrupt to the core than Massachusets?