Sonja Farak was a drug lab chemist who was also an addict, and ruined nearly 10,000 drug-related criminal cases by stealing the samples that came across her desk.

Farak was arrested several years ago and charged with tampering with a handful of drug-related cases, but recent evidence suggests she stole cocaine, methamphetamine, and a variety of other drugs from as many as 10,000 different samples.

The extent of her drug addiction came to light after Farak confessed to her therapist.

“She obtains the drugs from her job at the state drug lab, by taking portions of samples that have come in to be tested,” said Farak’s therapist.

More grievous still, Farak consumed the drugs while she was processing the samples, thereby rendering them inadmissible in court. But according to Farak, she needed the drugs to help her “get things done and not procrastinate.”

“What we are dealing with is thousands of alleged drug samples at the Amherst lab that were analyzed for use in court by someone [Sonja Farak] who has admitted to widespread tampering of the samples,” said Randolph Gioia, the deputy chief counsel for the Committee on Public Counsel Services. “And equally importantly, while working at the lab, she admitted to being under the influence of crack cocaine, powder cocaine, methamphetamine, and other drugs.”

It is currently unclear which cases have been ruined from Farak’s thefts, but an investigation is being conducted to determine exactly how far the contaminations reach.

“All of the cases she touched are corrupted and the convictions should be thrown out,” said Gioia.