As extensively detailed in How to Fix a Drug Scandal, Farak was arrested on January 19, 2013. This past Tuesday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court filed a report saying that more than 24,000 convictions in 16,449 cases have been dismissed as a result of foul play by a former state drug lab chemist. ", Prosecutors nationwide pretty uniformly backed this argument, which the Supreme Court rejected in a 54 opinion. "Because on almost a daily basis Farak abused narcoticsthere is no assurance that she was able to perform chemical analysis correctly," the judge found. High Massachusetts Lab Chemist Causes Thousands Of Drug Cases To Be Dismissed. Deval Patrick's office didn't learn about the protocol breach until December 2011. The next month, Ryan asked again. She had unrestricted access to the evidence room. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. She was struggling to suppress mental health issues, depression in particular, and she tried to kill herself in high school, according to Rolling Stone. His report deemed Dookhan the "sole bad actor" at the lab, a finding that remains disputed in some circles. If they'd kept digging, defendants might still have learned the crucial facts. She received the American Institute of Chemists Award in her final year as well as a Crimson and Gray Award from the school a year before, which recognized her dedication, commitment and unselfishness in the enrichment of student life at WPI. A Rolling Stone piece on Farak also indicated that she graduated with high distinction from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. A Compelling New Take on a Massachusetts Lab Scandal Tainting Thousands As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. But she worried they might be privileged as health information. He recommended she lose her law license for two years; the Office of Bar Counsel later argued Kaczmarek should be disbarred. The medical records stated that she did not have an existing drug problem that was amplified by her access to more substances. 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. In 2012, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court foundegregious prosecutorial misconduct after an assistant district attorney withheldevidence a judge had ordered him toproduce for the defense of a teenageraccused of statutory rape. Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. Farak admitted to being on a list of drugs while working between 2004 and her 2013 arrest.