The First Circuit has upheld the Massachusetts District Court’s denial of absolute immunity to a former Assistant Attorney General who withheld exculpatory evidence of a state lab worker’s drug use. In a § 1983 suit by a defendant who served more than five years before his conviction was dismissed following disclosure that Sonja Farak was addicted to drugs and tampering with samples during her employment as a drug laboratory chemist, the First Circuit held that AAG Anne Kaczmarek must face the plaintiff’s claims that she suppressed critical exculpatory evidence in his case. The suit therefore moves forward against Ms. Kaczmarek and other defendants. MACDL submitted an amicus brief to the First Circuit advocating for the court to affirm the District Court’s denial of absolute immunity.
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