Advertise on podcast: Rigged: The Massachusetts Drug Lab Scandal Podcast

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4.7

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15 reviews

Description

On September 28, 2012, Massachusetts state chemist Annie Dookhan was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and falsification of academic records. Approximately four months later another chemist, Sonja Farak, was arrested for using the drugs she was supposed to be testing and the Massachusetts Drug Lab Scandal was born. Hosts Jamie Folk and Ilyas Rona will be exploring the William H Hinton, UMass Amherst and State Police crime labs associated with this scandal and speak with the lawyers whose clients rights were violated as a result of the fraud committed by the chemists in these labs. Through their investigation of this case, Folk and Rona have found that the crimes of Dookhan and Farak were just the tip of the iceberg and that multiple chemists from three state labs lied on the stand, knowingly sent people to jail for possessing drugs that were not illegal and wanted to help law enforcement send as many people to jail as possible. Jamie Folk is an independent journal who has been investigating this case since Dookhan's arrest was first reported. He has obtained over 70k documents from the state and has interviewed several lawyers, journalists, politicians, law enforcement officials and others connected with the case over the past 7 years. Ilyas Rona is a lawyer who represented a man sent to prison by Dookhan and another Hinton lab chemist for possessing what turned out to be a cashew for two years. He has been investigating the Hinton, Amherst and State Police labs ever since.

Podcast episodes

Check latest episodes from Rigged: The Massachusetts Drug Lab Scandal Podcast podcast

The OIG's Supplemental Report Part 1

2021/07/17

Jamie, Ilyas and Chris begin season 2 of Rigged by covering the latest news on the former Attorney General employees who hid the extent of Sonja Farak's drug use from defense attorneys. They then discuss the 2016 Inspector General supplemental report which got little to no media attention. This report documented the OIG's retesting of samples that the lab ran multiple times while only reporting the final results to the courts. This was clearly the lab doing everything it could to make sure that results came back positive and repeatedly testing evidence until they got their desired results. These shocking realities are directly opposed to all the assertions that have been made by the state about the Hinton Lab. Namely that Annie Dookhan was the lone bad actor at the Hinton Lab and no one else was found to tamper with evidence.

The OIG's Supplemental Report Part 2

2021/07/27

Ilyas, Chris and Jamie go through the rest of the OIG's Supplemental report. They discuss the inconsistencies in the report and begin looking into the Class E drug classification disaster that was briefly touched upon in the report. Much of the testing malfeasance covered in this episode was done by chemists not named Annie Dookhan yet the OIG still insists Annie Dookhan was the lone bad actor at the lab.

Response To The OIG's Supplemental Report

2021/09/16

Jamie, Ilyas and Chris review lawyer Nathan Tamulis' Feburary 2016 response to the Massachusetts Office of the Inspector General Supplemental Report. The sheer amount of contradictions, half truths and outright falsehoods that exist in this report is depressingly unsurprising.

The Class E Debacle Part 1

2021/10/27

Chris, Ilyas and Jamie discuss the biggest story no one has ever talked about with this case, chemists from Hinton, Amherst and the State Police Labs intentionally falsely classifying drugs to send people who they know to be innocent to jail. While we have touched upon this subject in previous episodes, we haven't gone over exactly what happened until now. There has never been an article on this subject and this is the first time that the state police's drug testing lab has been implacated in any wrong doing in the seemingly never ending drug lab scandal. As always this is breaking news and you will only find it here, on Rigged!

The Class E Debacle Part 2: Electric Bugaloo

2021/11/01

The conclusion of our look into the state's intentional misclassification of Class E drugs.

The Federal Investigation Into The Springfield Police Department Part 1

2021/11/24

Luke Ryan returns to discuss the Department of Justice's 2018 investigation into the Springfield Police Department. This investigation uncovered the illegal, immoral and often criminal abuses of power undertook by the SPD's Narcotics department. The shocking details of the criminal activity of this department need to be heard to be believed. All that and a brief opinion on the Rittenhouse verdict, all on the latest episode of Rigged.

The Federal Investigation Into The Springfield Police Department Part 2

2021/11/30

The second half of our review of the federal investigation of the Springfield Police Department. *Spoiler Alert* The Springfield PD REALLY likes punching people in the face.

Audio of Springfield Detective Greg Bigda Threatening to Murder Teenagers

2022/02/03

To say that this episode is disturbing is a major understatement. Jamie, Ilyas and Chris review the video of Springfield Detective Greg Bigda who was indicted in 2018 by a federal grand jury for excessive force in connection with allegedly punching and kicking young car theft suspects during an arrest in 2016, two counts of “abusive interrogation” for threatening to kill and plant drugs on them, plus drafting a false police report. He faced up to 15 years behind bars if convicted. Bigda was unbelievably acquitted of these charges by a jury that truly needs to have it's collective heads examined. The jury heard the same audio that is featured in this podcast. They heard an unhinged man screaming at teenagers and threatening to murder them and "get away with it" and that he was going to plant drugs on one of the kids and lock him away for 15 years. This is truly an unbelievable episode that will leave you shocked and outraged. Enjoy!

Interview With MassLive and Republican Reporter Stephanie Barry

2022/02/16

Chris, Ilyas and Jamie interview MassLive and Republican reporter Stephanie Barry about her reporting on the Greg Bigda case and the Springfield PD in general. Stephanie has been reporting on Springfield PD corruption for years and her insights and thoughts on these cases. This is a great, thought provoking episode on how corrupt our criminal justice system really is in Massachusetts.

Real Cost of Prisons with Lois Ahrens

2022/03/08

Chris was unavailable for this episode so it was just Jamie and Ilyas talking about the Real Cost of Prisons with activist Lois Ahrens. We discuss what are the drivers behind mass incarceration in Massachusetts and what people who want to advocate for change can do to force their elected officials to take action. This is a great conversation for those who wonder why nothing was ever done about what happened at the drug labs and with other scandals in Massachusetts involving law enforcement.

Interview with Rick Holmes on the Murder of Eurie Stamps and Beating of Mark Tinsley by the Framingham Police

2022/04/14

Before Briana Taylor and George Floyd there was Eurie Stamps. Eurie was a devoted father and grandfather who was laying on his couch on January 5th 2011 12:30 AM watching a Celtics game when the Framingham Police threw a flash bang into his home, smashed in his door and ordered him to the ground. Eurie did as he was ordered and yet he was still shot in the back of the head by a member of the town's paramilitary SWAT Team. This team was disbanded after this incident but that didn't bring back Mr. Stamps or console his grieving family. In this episode we review this case with former Middlesex Daily News Editorial Page Editor Rick Holmes. Mr. Holmes not only discusses this case in detail but also tells the story of Mark Tinsley. Mr. Tinsley committed the heinous crime of driving 40 in a 25 MPH speed zone. For this act he was dragged out of his car and savagely beaten by the Framingham Police who pulled him over. These cases are truly horrifying yet somehow not surprising in the nation's most liberal police state.

Public Records Requests with Andrew Quemere

2022/06/10

Andrew Quemere from The Mass Dump comes on and reviews the state of public records and transparency laws in Massachusetts. Andrew has been submitting public records for 11 years and has seen first hand law enforcement officials knowingly violate the public records law. We get into that plus other drug lab related topics on this episode of Rigged.

SJE536 2020/06/14

Compelling and timely

Jamie’s deep dive into the deficiencies of our criminal justice system is insightful and interesting. This is a very timely and engaging story, parti...

ap000 2022/06/26

Editing skills desperately needed

The information is good and I wish I didn’t have to listen to the podcast at 2x speed to get through the dead air that was left in along with the valu...

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