Thousands Of Drug Convictions Dismissed By State's Highest Court

The state's highest court ordered the dismissal of thousands of drug convictions Thursday in the aftermath of an evidence tampering scandal by a disgraced state chemist. The Supreme Judicial Court ordered the dismissal of all cases involving methamphetamine drug evidence in the nine years Sonja Farak worked at the Amherst Drug Lab, as well as every case involving drug evidence there between Jan. 1, 2009 and Jan. 18, 2013.

Farak was arrested in January 2013 and pleaded guilty the following year to drug charges after admitting to regularly working under the influence of drugs, stealing drugs from police-submitted evidence, and manufacturing crack cocaine at the Amherst Drug Lab.

Prosecutors said Farak was high "almost every day" throughout her eight-year career at the drug lab. She started siphoning from drug samples submitted by police in late 2009, and began regularly stealing from them in 2011. Farak testified that she sought counseling for substance abuse around this time, "when attempts at self-control were not successful."

District Attorneys in several counties said they last year they were dropping thousands of drug cases involving Farak and the lab.

Alex Newman, Patch Staff, contributed to this report

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