In March, a Hampden Superior Court judge suspended the sentences of eight incarcertated men because of the possibility that the evidence in their cases was contaminated.
NORTHAMPTON - A former chemist at the state crime lab in Amherst pleaded innocent Monday to tampering with evidence and stealing drugs.
Sonja Farak, 35, of Northampton is charged with four counts of evidence tampering, four counts of larceny of drugs and two count of possession of cocaine. Farak worked at a state laboratory in Amherst that stores and analyzes substances seized by police as possible drug evidence. She was arrested Jan. 19 after other employees at the lab contacted state police to report a discrepancy in their drug inventory.
Farak was originally arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown on Jan. 22, where the judge set bail at $5,000 cash. Farak has since posted that amount. Hampshire Superior Court Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder maintained bail at that amount Monday at the request of Assistant Attorney General Anne Kaczmarek, who is prosecuting the case for the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. Earlier this month, Farak was indicted by a statewide grand jury in Suffolk County, a practice that is not uncommon when alleged crimes pertain to more than one county.
In March, a Hampden Superior Court judge suspended the sentences of eight incarcerated men because of the possibility that the evidence in their cases was contaminated. To date, no Hampshire County cases have been affected by the charges against Farak.
As conditions of her bail, Farak must undergo random drug tests and observe a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, except when she visits her parents in Rhode Island. Defense lawyer Elaine Pourinski asked that Kinder also make an exception to the curfew in the event that Farak secures a new job. She had been delivering newspapers.
Kinder scheduled a pretrial hearing for Aug. 26.
Last August, authorities shut down the Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Jamaica Plain after chemist Annie Dookhan reportedly admitted to faking drug tests. Dookhan has pleaded innocent to eight counts of evidence tampering and 17 counts of obstruction of justice. Allegations of wrong-doing at that lab, which processes evidence for criminal cases, has forced prosecutors to review thousands of cases and resulted in a civil suit by a Boston man indicted on drug charges.