Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A second MA crime lab chemist arrested? Ya gotta be kidding me

From the files of "not just one bad apple", another chemist working for the same state crime laboratory system as Annie Dookhan has been arrested:
BOSTON (CBS) -  A chemist from the State Crime Laboratory in Amherst has been arrested. 
Attorney General Martha Coakley announced Sunday, Sonja Farak, 35, of Northampton, was arrested Saturday night and charged with allegedly tampering with drug evidence, possessing class A drugs and possessing class B drugs. Coakley said the two drugs were heroin and cocaine. Farak is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Eastern Hampshire District Court... 
Coakley said she does not believe Farak’s arrest jeopardizes the reliability of drug certificates or puts into question the fairness of trials for drug defendants. 
The Amherst Drug Laboratory stores and analyzes alleged controlled substances seized by local and state police. On Friday, members of the Amherst Laboratory contacted State Police to report a discrepancy in the controlled substance inventory held in evidence, according to Coakley’s office. 
State Police say after an investigation they believe Farak removed a substance from a case that had previously tested positive for cocaine and replaced it with a counterfeit substance that no longer tested positive...
One hopes that this was sort of fluky. (Hopes!)

3 comments:

  1. Well, that's at least two job openings for chemists in MA!

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    Replies
    1. Sadly, just one. The Jamaica Plain lab was shuttered altogether.

      Delete
  2. I bet those two, Dookhan and Farak, got the jobs through bribing and personal connection. The head of that lab needs to be investigated.

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20