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| -Lurid Crime Tales- | |||
| Student's 5-day ordeal in DEA jail sparks outrage, anger | |||
| 2012-05-04 | |||
| Elected officials are demanding answers after Daniel Chong, a 23-year-old UC San Diego student, was left unattended for five days in a Drug Enforcement Administration detention cell. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) called on U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. asking for an "immediate and thorough" Department of Justice investigation into the matter. "After the investigation is completed, I ask that you please provide me with the results and the actions the department will take to make sure those responsible are held accountable and that no one in DEA custody will ever again be forced to endure such treatment," she wrote.
San Diego attorney Gene Iredale said his client was "still recovering" from the ordeal. The attorney submitted the initial paperwork needed for a lawsuit Wednesday. The claim seeks $20 million in compensation for the incident. "He is glad to be alive," Iredale said of Chong. "He wants to make sure that what happened to him doesn't happen to anyone else." News of the incident came to light when Chong told a San Diego television station he spent nearly a week in the cell without food, water or access to a toilet after an April 21 raid on a house in San Diego. The DEA, which identified Chong only as "the individual in question," said he and eight others were swept up during a raid of a suspected Ecstasy distribution operation, where agents found guns, ammunition, 18,000 Ecstasy pills and other drugs.
Chong, the agency said, was "accidentally left in one of the cells." He told NBC San Diego he kicked the door "many, many times" in a futile attempt to get agents' attention.
Chong also suffered hallucinations and "thought he was going insane," Iredale said. Chong told NBC San Diego he tried to kill himself by breaking his glasses and cutting his wrists. William R. Sherman, acting special agent in charge of the DEA's San Diego Division, apologized in a statement Wednesday and said he had ordered "an extensive review" of DEA policies and procedures. The DEA said Chong told agents he had been at the house that was raided "to get high with his friends" and later admitted that he used a white powdery substance found in his cell that tested positive for methamphetamine. Iredale confirmed Chong had stayed with friends the night of April 20 to "celebrate" the day heralded by many marijuana aficionados "in the typical way -- by smoking some pot." But the attorney said the meth found in the cell was not his client's and was there before his arrival. "The DEA's protocol was so sloppy that somebody who was a previous prisoner secreted a small amount of meth in a plastic bag inside a blanket," Iredale said. | |||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #11 I would note the problem is not necessaily the software. If you are not diligent about updating "inventory" locations, the data can get out of date. In addition, if nobody verifies data entry, you'll get bad data all over. |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2012-05-04 23:09 |
| #10 Yes, the Senator does babble. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-05-04 15:23 |
| #9 But Babbles still thinks that the federal government can run health care, no probs... Surely you meant Senator Babbles .... |
| Posted by: gorb 2012-05-04 14:31 |
| #8 Third world experience in a third world location. Few surprises here. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2012-05-04 12:11 |
| #7 I better hear of very public firings in this - it is not the first time. |
| Posted by: newc 2012-05-04 11:58 |
| #6 Sloppy. I remember a month or so ago I was in a bar waiting for a table and I had a good view of the hostesses working their computers to keep track of tables so I didn't drink too much at the bar. It was very interesting for a software guy. They knew exactly who was at which table, who was waiting and when each table became available. When it's busy in a place like that there is money at stake they can't afford to be sloppy. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-05-04 11:36 |
| #5 I don't really care what he did. This sort of mistreatment is the opposite of justice. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2012-05-04 10:43 |
| #4 No one should be treated like that. However, if you will notice, the photo of the guy is taken in a library-like setting with his school sweatshirt on. Kind of like posting middle school photos of the kid and mug shots of Zimmerman in the Zimmerman case. |
| Posted by: SLindsey 2012-05-04 09:50 |
| #3 or as Pelosi would say, "we have to stay in this holding cell so we can find out what's in it" |
| Posted by: lord garth 2012-05-04 09:19 |
| #2 If they did this to a Terrorist they would all be in jail now. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2012-05-04 09:18 |
| #1 In the mid-80s I remember a Major City in... approaching the firm I was with to create prisoner tracking software for them. The CEO and his favorite legal adviser were at one of their jails waiting to talk to the chief of police when a lawyer came in with a writ demanding the release of his client. They couldn't find him! Our lawyer had a long talk with his and kept in contact. It took 3 days to find the guy. Six months later there was a class action suit with lots of members against the police/justice/prison system and all software providers. We crossed our lucky hearts that we didn't pursue the contract. |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2012-05-04 04:46 |