Some cases will be reduced and some people will get reductions in bail, Mastroianni said of the fallout of the case in which Sonja Farak is accused of evidence tampering and stealing heroin and cocaine.
SPRINGFIELD — Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni said Tuesday the arrest of Sonja Farak, a chemist at the state crime lab in Amherst accused of evidence tampering and stealing heroin and cocaine from the lab, causes a serious problem for his office.
Farak pleaded not guilty Tuesday at her arraignment in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown. She was released on $5,000 bail.
Farak's arrest led to the temporary closing of the Amherst crime lab.
“Today there were several cases on the trial list that were ready for trial in which she (Farak) was a named witness. Obviously she’s not available,” he said.
He said his office is informing both the District Court and Superior Court they are not prepared to go to trial on those now.
“We’ve asked for a two-week stay to report back to the court as to what we will do with all of these cases after we have had a chance to assess the material being produced by the Attorney General’s Office to show us what their investigation revealed,” Mastroianni said.
His office needs to assess how many samples of drugs were at the Amherst laboratory during the time Farak was employed there and to assess how many samples Farak had access to.
The review needs to include cases going back several years, Mastroianni said.
He said State Police have taken into custody all samples that were at the Amherst laboratory. Samples determined to be unopened will be brought to another state laboratory for testing, he said.
“This is going to be a long procedure,” Mastroianni said.
“It’s not going to be a surprise to see some cases being dismissed, I can tell you that right now,” he said. Some cases will be reduced and some people will get reductions in bail.
He said he expects some people will file to have previous convictions brought back and re-examined.
Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan said his office would have no comment on the case and referred all questions to the attorney general's office.
Farak was arrested by state police Saturday night.