Sonja Farak 2014

Sonja Farak is led from Hampshire Superior Court after pleading guilty to charges of tampering with drug evidence while she worked at the state lab in Amherst.

(Don Treeger / The Republican file)

SPRINGFIELD — Former state chemist Sonja Farak, who pleaded guilty two years ago to tampering with evidence at a Massachusetts state crime lab, began using drugs from the Amherst lab where she worked as early as late 2004 or early 2005, according to court documents released Tuesday.

That was one piece of information contained in the reports formerly impounded but released by Hampden Superior Court Judge Richard J. Carey.

Carey also ruled minutes from a grand jury convened by the state Attorney General's Office to look into Farak's wrongdoing can be made public. Farak, who had already been convicted of drug tampering at the time, testified under an immunity agreement.

Carey wrote in his ruling: "There is a probability that numerous other defendants other than those presently before the court may have, based upon the grand jury minutes and the reports recently issued, a basis for bringing motions for post conviction relief. In light of the need for more information and disclosures about Farak's misconduct, the motions to vacate the non-dissemination orders are allowed."

Carey made the ruling in the cases of eight defendants seeking post-conviction relief because of Farak's involvement in their cases. Defense lawyers have been fighting for years to establish the parameters of Farak's wrongdoing.

In January 2014, Farak was given an 18-month jail sentence after admitting she stole some of the cocaine she was supposed to be testing. Hampshire Superior Court Judge Mary-Lou Rup also ordered Farak, 35, of Northampton, to serve five years of probation and perform 500 hours of community service following release from custody.

Another report released concluded there is no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct or obstruction of justice by the assistant attorney general or State Police officers in matters related to the Farak investigation. That was prepared by special assistant attorney general Peter J. Velis and special Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Thomas Merrigan.

Carey's written decision quotes an interim report by state Assistant Attorney General Thomas Caldwell. The report said, "Ms. Farak began using controlled substances regularly in the last quarter of 2004; Ms. Farak was under the influence of controlled substances during a vast majority of her working hours from the last quarter of 2004 to her removal from the lab on Jan. 18, 2013.

Caldwell wrote in his report that at a grand jury at which Farak testified under immunity, Farak testified "about her extensive drug use; her siphoning of drugs from the Lab's standards which were used to test drug samples, from police-submitted samples of drugs which were intended to be tested for evidentiary purposes in pending criminal cases, and from other chemists' samples; and her manufacturing in the Lab of crack cocaine for her own personal use."

Farak testified at that grand jury she first started using methamphetamine from the lab in late 2004 or early 2005, she said he enjoyed the "positive side effects" of the drug. She began to use it multiple times a day. Not taking the drug resulted in severe lethargy, irritability, and lack of production and focus, to the point where she would have to call out sick.

Her grand jury testimony, detailed in the Attorney Generals Office report below, tracked an acceleration in her drug use and drug theft.

Below are three documents: Carey's order, a report by the Attorney General's Office and a report by special assistant attorney general Peter Velis and special Hampshire County assistant district attorney Thomas Merrigan.

Judge Richard J. Carey decision on Sonja Farak matters by MassLive2

Attorney General investigative report into actions of former state chemist Sonja Farak by MassLive2

Report of Peter Velis, Thomas Merrigan finding no prosecutorial misconduct in investigating Sonja Farak mat... by MassLive2