Superior Court Judge Mary-Lou Rup also also ordered Farak to serve five years of probation and 500 hours of community service to be completed following jail.
NORTHAMPTON - Former chemist Sonja Farak was given an 18-month jail term Monday after pleading guilty in an evidence-tampering scandal at a University of Massachusetts laboratory.
Superior Court Judge Mary-Lou Rup also ordered Farak to serve five years of probation and 500 hours of community service to be completed following jail. Rup also ordered Farak to do either Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous while in custody.
Rup said that Farak's theft of cocaine samples undermined public faith in the criminal justice system and resulted in the dismissal of cocaine cases in four western counties.
"I don't have to tell you the number of cases - dozens, hundreds," Rup said while summarizing the damage done by Farak.
Farak pleaded guilt to tampering with evidence, theft of a controlled substance, cocaine and possession of a controlled substance. She worked at a UMass lab that analyzed the substances seized by police as possible drug evidence.
She was arrested Jan. 9, 2013 after other lab employees contacted state police to report a discrepancy in their drug inventory .
Defense lawyer Elaine Pourinski asked the judge to place her client on probation.