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Documents from the Amherst lab scandal will gradually be added here. If you have additional documents or do not see a document of interest, please get in touch.

Table of Contents

Committee for Public Counsel Services & others vs. Massachusetts Attorney General & others, ongoing.

NOTE: where included, numbers indicate the corresponding entry on the Supreme Judicial Court docket.

September 2017: The petition and related documents filed with the Supreme Judicial Court.

Here is the petition, affidavits from petitioners Herschelle Reaves and Nicole Westcott, and affidavits from key attorneys involved in Farak litigation to date, including Luke Ryan, Jennifer Appleyard, Randy Gioia of CPCS, and Matthew Segal of the ACLU of MA.



November 2, 2017: After a hearing on October 31 at which the district attorneys indicated their intention to dismiss many Farak cases, SJC Justice Frank Gaziano orders each office to file, by November 30, a list of cases prosecutors would be willing to vacate with prejudice. Gaziano also orders the district attorneys.


Document coming soon. Entry #29 on the SJC docket.



November 30, 2017: The district attorneys' responses, including a joint response and individual offices' affidavits/stipulations. (Some offices sent their final or updated counts later).



November 30, 2017: The Attorney General's Office response, including an affidavit from Kim West, head of the agency's Criminal Bureau, who described the AGO's activities to address the fallout from Farak since the SJC's Cotto ruling in April 2015.



December 8, 2017: Justice Gaziano orders parties to file, by December 18, questions to reserve and report to the full court, as well as a joint proposal for members of a working group to develop protocols for dismising stipulated cases and notifiying the defendants. Gaziano's order indicated this process will work "in the manner of the Bridgeman working group."


Document coming soon. Entry #56 on the SJC docket.



December 11 to 26, 2017: Parties respond to Gaziano's December 8 order.




January 26, 2018: Justice Gaziano reports the case to the full SJC.

Justice Gaziano reported three questions to the full SJC bench:

  • 1. Whether some or all of the defendants whose cases haven't yet been dismissed "are entitled to have their convictions vacated, and the drug charges against them dismissed with prejudice, given the undisputed misconduct of the assistant Attorneys General found by Judge Carey";
  • 2. Whether the definition of "Farak defendants" is too narrow — that is, the definition "should be expanded to include all defendants who pleaded guilty to a drug charge, admitted to sufficient facts on a drug charge, or were found guilty of a drug charge, if the alleged drugs were tested at the Amherst Laboratory during Farak's employment there, regardless whether Farak was the analyst or signed the certificates in their cases."
  • 3. Whether the court should adopt "additional prophylactic measures to address future cases involving widespread prosecutorial misconduct."

The case will be scheduled for argument in May 2018.



March 15, 2018: Petitioners file their opening brief to the full SJC



April 5, 2018: Justice Gaziano signs first dismissal order

Justice Frank Gaziano issued the dismissal order for cases the district attorneys agreed to vacate in fall 2017. The ACLU and CPCS estimate that the running total of dismissals stands at around 11,000 convictions in approximately 7,700 cases.

April 12 and 18, 2018: Attorney General's Office and district attorneys file their response briefs to the full SJC



April 23, 2018: Amicus file their briefs to the full SJC

Bar complaints against Kaczmarek and Foster, July 2017

Following Judge Carey's ruling, complaints were filed with the Massachusetts Office of the Bar Counsel against Anne Kaczamarek and Kris Foster, the former state prosecutors the judge determined "deliberately withheld" exculpatory evidence from defendants. (As of January 2018, the status of these complaints remains unclear.)



Judge Carey's ruling, June 2017

In a blistering decision more than 100 pages long, Hampden County Superior Court Judge Richard Carey ruled that former state prosecutors Anne Kaczmarek and Kris Foster "deliberately withheld" exculpatory evidence — namely therapy worksheets showing Farak was using narcotics in the lab for far longer than had previously been ruled. Carey characterized their misconduct as a "fraud upon the court."



Parties' proposed findings of fact and motions, January 2017 to April 2017



Evidentiary hearings in Springfield, December 2016

Hampden County Superior Court Judge Richard Carey held combined evidentiary hearings on several Farak defendants' motions for dismissal or new trial in December 2016. Here are the transcripts.



The Caldwell Report, April 2016

After the Cotto ruling in April 2015, the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office conducted an investigation into the scope of Sonja Farak's misconduct. During that investigation, the AGO immunized Farak to testify before grand jury. Four others testified before grand jury: James Hanchett, Sharon Salem, Rebecca Pontes, and Nancy Brooks. The report and grand jury transcripts are embedded below.

This April 2016 report, signed by Assistant Attorney General Thomas Caldwell, summarized findings that Farak began using methamphetamine taken from the Amherst lab's standards in late 2004 or early 2005, and that there were extensive periods during which she consumed meth each morning.

A footnote to the report (see p. 55, footnote 43) drew much ire from defense attorneys: "The AGO has provided the facts gleaned from its investigation without evaluation, without any determination about the credibility of any of the witnesses, and without the drawing of any conclusions."

(NOTE: This report was originally filed under impoundment. This impoundment order was vacated by Judge Carey in May 3, 2016 (see above, Commonwealth vs. Erick Cotto and related others, Memorandum of Decision and Order, May 3, 2016, p.22, 3. In the same order, Judge Carey lifted the impoundement order on grand jury minutes, see p.8-9).



The Velis-Merrigan Report, March 2016

In response to allegations by defense attorneys that two former state prosecutors — Anne Kaczmarek and Kris Foster — committed prosecutorial misconduct in handling the evidence seized from Farak's car, the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office and the Northwestern District Attorney's Office deputized two retired judges to investigate. The judges, Peter Velis and Thomas Merrigan, partnered with two Massachusetts state troopers, Det. Capt. Paul L'Italien and Capt. James Coughlin, for their investigation.

The Velis-Merrigan report, submitted to Judge Carey in late March 2016, found "there is no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct by the Assistant Attorney Generals and MSP officers in matters related to the Farak case." In his June 2017 ruling following extensive evidentiary hearings, Judge Carey came to the exact opposite conclusion.

Notably, although Velis and Merrigan characterized the troopers' investigation as "painstakingly thorough and detailed," Judge Carey ordered further investigation and evidentiary hearings. Defense attorneys successfully argued to Judge Carey that the troopers' "email audit" was not comprehensive as to internal AGO correspondence. Additionally, it seems their interview of Kaczmarek lasted approximately one hour, and there is no mention of any interview with Foster.

(NOTE: This report and attached exhibits were originally filed under non-dissemination and impoundment orders. These orders were vacated by Judge Carey in May 3, 2016 (see above, Commonwealth vs. Erick Cotto and related others, Memorandum of Decision and Order, May 3, 2016, p.22, 3.)



Select exhibits to Velis-Merrigan report coming soon.



Luke Ryan discovers the withheld evidence, November 2014



Commonwealth v. Bryant Ware, decided April 2015

The Supreme Judicial Court's opinion in Ware is available here.