6,000 drug cases tainted by lab scandal to be dismissed

[Right_in_Virginia]

6,000 drug cases tainted by lab scandal to be dismissed
Boston Herald, Nov 30, 2017, Associated Press

Massachusetts prosecutors said Thursday that they will dismiss more than 6,000 convictions tied to a former chemist who authorities say was high almost every day she worked at a state drug lab for eight years.

The move comes months after the American Civil Liberties Union and the state's public defender agency asked the state's highest court to throw out all of the cases tainted by Sonja Farak, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to stealing drugs from the state crime lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and tampering with evidence.

"Dismissal vindicates the rights of our clients to due process and fair prosecution and restores the integrity to the justice system by sending a clear message to prosecutors that no conviction will be allowed to stand in the face of such fraud," said Randy Gioia of the Center for Public Counsel Services.


More: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2017/11/6000_drug_cases_tainted_by_lab_scandal_to_be_dismissed

[Right_in_Virginia]

Reading the rest of the article, this is the second time this year.  20,000 drug cases were thrown out for tampering with evidence and falsifying results by other lab chemists.

[WingNot]

Sonja Farak told investigators she smoked crack every day at work. She also took methamphetamine, amphetamine, ketamine, ecstasy and LSD, both at work and at home. And it was all free, and often extremely high quality, because Farak was a chemist at the Massachusetts crime lab in Amherst .

What...  No Heroin in her daily regimen?   Slacker.

[EdJames]

I have to wonder how she was able to function in the lab?