A Massachusetts chemist employed at a state crime drug lab in Amherst was arraigned Tuesday on multiple charges of evidence tampering and drug possession. The arrest occured after a fellow chemist reported missing drug samples late last week.
35 year old Sonja Farak brushed past reporters to her parents’ car outside Eastern Hampshire District Court after posting $5,000 bail.
Farak, a Northampton resident, pleaded not guilty to the two counts of evidence tampering and two counts of drug possession. Farak was arrested over the weekend after fellow employees at the Amherst drug lab were unable to locate several cocaine samples that Farak had analyzed and tested positively earlier this month. According to the criminal complaint filed by the Commonwealth, co-workers found packages of the missing samples in Farak’s work station which were sliced open and filled with white chunks that tested negatively for cocaine.
On Saturday, state police searched Farak’s car, where they found heroine and cocaine. She was arrested at her home later that day. The Amherst drug lab is temporarily closed and its employees have been transferred to a Sudbury facility. Farak was released with one week of probation and a nine-to-five curfew. She is due back in court for a probable cause hearing on February 22 where her case will likely be transferred to the Superior Court level. The case comes just a month after another state drug lab chemist in the Eastern part of the state pleaded not guilty to tampering charges that could affect hundreds of criminal cases.