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Robertson Shannon Robertson Professor Berthiaume FSC105- April 17th, 2023 Two Troubled Drug Crime Lab Employees Created an Epic Crime Lab Scandal and Violated Multiple Code of Ethics Reequirements In every profession, you will find a code of ethics, including in crime labs. But what happens if the professionals working in the lab act in such a way that violates the conduct in which they’re expected to adhere to? Unfortunately, there are good and bad people everywhere, including in crime labs. This was the case for both Annie Dookhan and Sonja Farak, former employees of drug labs in Massachusetts. The two disgraced employees failed to adhere to the code of ethics that the Department of Justice directs forensic science professionals to adopt. The misconduct of these two individuals jeopardized the integrity of thousands of cases involving drug evidence in the state of Massachusetts. They violated multiple policies in their own ways, exposing a decade-long scandal with devastating effects. Regardless of malicious intent, their carelessness, selfishness, and wrongdoings caused much distress for all involved. It’s sad to think about, but the public of course felt distrust toward the legal system because of this. While the innocent may have served time, the actual criminals potentially walked freely among the rest of us. From the National Commission on Forensic Science comes the National Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility for the Forensic Sciences, in which the recommendation is the following: “The US Attorney General should direct the forensic science and forensic medicine service providers within the Department of Justice to adopt the National Code of Ethics and
Robertson Professional Responsibility for Forensic Science and Forensic Medicine Service Providers, that the Code be annually reviewed and signed by all forensic science and forensic medicine service providers, and that steps be defined to enforce violations.”. (Department of Justice, n.d.) It’s quite a long to place here, but the two acted in ways that violated multiple requirements of the code. Further, Massachusetts has its own Forensic Sciences oversight board, which should have ensured the enforcement of these requirements. Annie Dookhan, a former chemist employed at the Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Boston, was arrested at her home in Franklin, MA in September of 2012 for tampering with over 60,000 samples. “Between 2003 and 2011, chemist Annie Dookhan engaged in serious misconduct at a state drug lab that jeopardized the integrity of over 20,000 cases in Eastern Massachusetts. Because of Ms. Dookhan's misconduct, the Supreme Judicial Court ordered the dismissal with prejudice of thousands of drug cases.” (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2019) Dookhan allegedly faked drug results, forged paperwork, and mixed samples. The lawyers involved were in a panic when it came to how to handle the cases of 1,140 inmates that were convicted using potentially tainted evidence. Due to her actions, the lab was promptly closed, and three officials resigned. State attorney general Martha Coakley believed that her motive was to be seen as a good worker, judging by authorities. Coworkers of hers had raised concerns about her many years before her arrest, and her supervisors were held at the stake for not addressing these concerns. She should have been removed from lab duties and reported. When her supervisor audited her paperwork, nothing was found to be wrong, and her samples were not retested. During the same year, a chemist found seven different instances where Dookhan incorrectly identified drug samples as specific narcotics, when they were in fact something else
Robertson automatic dismissal with prejudice of all cases tested at the Amherst Drug Lab between January 2009 and January 2013, effective December 13, 2018.” (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2019) For around eight years, Farak worked in the lab while abusing the drug samples she was supposed to be processing. The state Attorney General’s investigation revealed that she abused various drugs from the lab including LSD, methamphetamines, and cocaine, and she even produced crack cocaine with lab supplies. It wasn’t until 2016 that the range of her misconduct came to light. As a chemist, she worked for two years at Hinton Lab, the same lab Dookhan worked at. However, her drug addiction started a year after she moved to and began working at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her lab duties were to test controlled substance evidence from criminal cases submitted to the lab by law enforcement and provide testimony with her test results in court. She began consuming drug “standards”, which we know are substances purchased from drug companies that are used as controls when testing evidence samples. By 2009, she "nearly exhausted" the lab's entire stock of methamphetamine standard, at which point she turned to ketamine, cocaine, MDMA, LSD and other drugs — both lab standards and those submitted by the police. (Wagner, 2016) The primary reason Farak gave was that she started using the methamphetamine standard (the first standard she admitted to consuming) out of curiosity. After researching the drug previously, she decided that that would be what she would try if she decided to start using the drugs from the lab. She felt energized after using it for 8-10 hours. From there her addiction spiraled. As she was abusing the drugs, she still performed satisfactory work, and her colleagues testified that they didn’t notice any signs of addiction. A senior chemist she worked with said she was dedicated and meticulous, and he didn’t notice any signs until she physically appeared to
Robertson decline, and she showed increased interest in drug lab submissions by police with drug trafficking case evidence. As she began fearing the lab would exhaust all drugs, she began to ingest standards of crack cocaine base and became highly addicted to it. She used it not only throughout the UMass building where the lab was located but at her workstation as well. This all led to her manufacturing crack cocaine using the lab’s cocaine. She had some close calls with authorities, including during a Mass State Police lab inspection while she was on crack cocaine, as well as when she was testifying in court in January
- Her misconduct was eventually unraveled when in 2013, lab personnel found that her work contained irregularities and drug samples were missing. The lab shut down and Farak was arrested. The state launched an investigation, leading to her pleading guilty to two counts of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, four counts of larceny of controlled substances from a dispensary, and four counts of tampering with evidence. She was sentenced to 18 months in jail for her crimes. With the misconduct of both employees, more wrongdoing from others came to light. “A decade-old scandal at a Massachusetts crime lab — which led authorities to dismiss tens of thousands of drug convictions — may involve wrongdoing by more people than was previously known, according to a recent court order.” (Mulvihill, Schuppe, 2022) A ruling related to the release of an array of state investigative materials by a state Superior Court Judge suggested that others employed at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute may have violated the code of ethics of the lab. In 2015, at least another person was referred for potential prosecution. The problem with this ruling is that it contradicts the state inspector general's office statements of Dookhan being the “bad seed” of the lab, meaning the scandal may have been much bigger than it originally was proven to be. The legal director of the ACLU of
Robertson References Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (2019, May 23). Drug lab cases information | Mass.gov. Www.mass.gov. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/drug-lab-cases-information Department of Justice. (n.d.). NATIONAL COMMISSION ON FORENSIC SCIENCE National Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility for the Forensic Sciences. https://www.justice.gov/archives/ncfs/page/file/788576/download Mulvihill, Schuppe, M., J. (2022, September 22). Epic Massachusetts crime lab scandal may involve even broader wrongdoing, judge says. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/massachusetts-crime-lab-drug-testing-scandal- rcna Staff, C. (2012, September 28). Annie Dookhan, chemist at Mass. crime lab, arrested for allegedly mishandling over 60,000 samples. Cbsnews.com. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/annie-dookhan-chemist-at-mass-crime-lab-arrested-for- allegedly-mishandling-over-60000-samples/ Wagner, L. (2016, May 4). Ex-Chemist In Massachusetts Was High On Drugs At Work For 8 Years. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/04/476755684/ex- chemist-in-massachusetts-was-high-on-drugs-at-work-for-8-years
