Ethics
Ex-prosecutor disbarred for disclosure failures in drug-lab scandal; supervisor, underling get totally different sanctions
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket ordered disbarment for Anne Okay. Kaczmarek, a former assistant lawyer basic, for “intentional and egregious misconduct.” Picture from Shutterstock.
A former assistant lawyer basic who oversaw the investigation and prosecution of a drug-using chemist at a Massachusetts crime lab has been disbarred for failing to reveal the total extent of the employee’s potential misconduct to affected drug defendants.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket ordered disbarment for Anne Okay. Kaczmarek for “intentional and egregious misconduct”—withholding exculpatory proof uncovered within the investigation of chemist Sonja Farak, which violated the due course of rights of 1000’s of prison defendants.
Bloomberg Law, WBUR and Law360 have protection, whereas the Legal Profession Blog printed highlights from the Aug. 31 opinion.
A supervisor and underling who relied on Kaczmarek’s assurances obtained differing punishments. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket ordered a year-and-a-day suspension for a junior assistant lawyer basic, Kris C. Foster, whereas imposing a public reprimand on Kaczmarek’s supervisor, John C. Verner.
Foster had helped Kaczmarek with discovery requests and had signed her title to courtroom filings.
“It ought to have been abundantly clear to Foster that it was her duty to confirm the reality of her personal representations,” the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket mentioned.
Verner had supervised greater than 100 folks, together with about 50 legal professionals, as prison bureau chief on the state lawyer basic’s workplace. As a result of Kaczmarek had expertise dealing with the case of one other chemist, Verner “was not required to interact within the kind of oversight which may have been required of a much less skilled lawyer,” the courtroom mentioned.
The courtroom mentioned Verner’s reliance on Kaczmarek’s false representations about turning over exculpatory info was “cheap and in good religion.”
Farak had labored on the Massachusetts drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her job was to check suspected medicine to find out whether or not they have been unlawful. She was arrested in 2013 and admitted that she stole laboratory medicine and was underneath the affect of methamphetamine, cocaine, LSD and different medicine whereas working and testifying.
Kaczmarek operated on the idea that Farak’s drug use and tampering was confined to cocaine and started in late 2012; she believed {that a} 2005 case the place the cocaine weight grew to become lighter and a March 2012 case through which Farak returned totally different wanting suspected oxycodone capsules to police have been “outliers.”
The proof, nonetheless, was probably exculpatory. The 2012 oxycodone case was ultimately disclosed to a minimum of one district lawyer however the 2005 cocaine case was not turned over, the courtroom mentioned.
Kaczmarek additionally failed to show over to district attorneys mental-health counseling worksheets present in Farak’s automotive that detailed her struggles with drug habit and her failed efforts to withstand utilizing medicine at work. And Kaczmarek didn’t disclose a urinalysis exhibiting a constructive take a look at for cocaine close to the time of her arrest.
Handwritten notes on the worksheets prompt Farak’s drug issues probably started sooner than what was thought. Kaczmarek had voiced issues that the worksheets have been privileged, and she or he didn’t embrace them in her grand jury presentation.
Farak pleaded responsible in January 2014 to proof tampering, larceny of a managed substance from a dispensary, and illegal possession of a Class B managed substance.
It wasn’t till November 2014 that the state lawyer basic’s workplace produced the psychological well being worksheets “and different papers that supported a powerful inference that Farak’s misconduct started earlier than 2012,” the courtroom mentioned.
In October 2018, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket ordered the dismissal of all convictions affected by Farak’s misconduct, starting on or after January 2009. Hundreds of convictions have been tossed.
Kaczmarek had argued that the failure to reveal exculpatory info can’t be attributed solely to her as a result of institutional failures and Farak’s misconduct have been additionally contributing causes.
The courtroom agreed that Kaczmarek was not solely accountable however mentioned she “bears the best duty, in addition to the best culpability.”
“On account of Kaczmarek’s intentional and egregious misconduct, the due course of rights of 1000’s of prison defendants have been violated for a chronic interval based mostly on the withholding of exculpatory proof,” the courtroom mentioned.
Legal professionals for Verner mentioned instructed Law360 and Bloomberg Regulation that they have been happy that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket agreed that solely a public reprimand was applicable.
Legal professionals for Kaczmarek didn’t instantly reply to the ABA Journal’s emailed request for remark.
Allen N. David of Peabody & Arnold, a lawyer for Foster, instructed the Journal that the additional day tacked on to the one-year suspension signifies that she must reapply for admission to the bar as an alternative of being robotically reinstated.
“The outcome was disappointing,” David says. “We have been asking for a reprimand based mostly on the truth that she was performing on info that she received from three totally different sources,” together with a state police detective and her speedy supervisor.
David says Foster and Verner, the prison bureau chief, relied on Kaczmarek’s assurance that every one the exculpatory materials had been turned over. But Foster was suspended, whereas Verner obtained solely a reprimand.
“There appears to be a disparity between supervisors and subordinates when it comes to how a lot they will depend on representations of colleagues. I believe that’s a troubling growth for the bar,” David says.
