Posted on 05/03/2012 5:06:17 AM PDT by Shane
SAN DIEGO — A California engineering student says he was left alone in a federal holding cell for four days with no food or water, apparently forgotten by the federal drug agents who detained him.
Daniel Chong, a senior at the University of California at San Diego, said he was swept up in a Drug Enforcement Administration raid near campus and was taken to a detention facility. After questioning, he was told he would be released.
Then the DEA left him locked inside a 5-by-10-foot windowless cell.
He screamed. He kicked madly at the door. He cried like a baby.
Soon, nothing made sense, said Chong, 23. He could hear agents chatting among themselves on the other side of the heavy door and other detainees coming and going from holding tanks nearby.
Days crawled by. No food. No water. No bathroom. He remembers biting his eyeglasses and using the broken shards to scrawl a note onto his left arm.
"Sorry Mom," he tried to write. He stopped after the "S,'' too weak to continue.
On Wednesday, the top federal drug agent in San Diego issued an apology.
"I am deeply troubled by the incident that occurred here last week," the statement said, without mentioning Chong by name. "I extend my deepest apologies to the young man and want to express that this event is not indicative of the high standards that I hold my employees to. I have personally ordered an extensive review of our policies and procedures," said the statement attributed to William R. Sherman, acting special agent in charge.
The DEA acknowledged Monday that agents had left someone in a cell after a raid on April 21 — until they found him and had to call paramedics. The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department said that medical call came on April 25.
At the raid, DEA officials said, they apprehended nine suspects and netted 18,000 ecstasy pills, three weapons and other drugs.
"Seven suspects were brought to county detention after processing, one was released and the individual in question was accidentally left in one of the cells," spokeswoman Amy Roderick said.
Chong told the Associated Press the ordeal began hours after he went to some friends' house on April 20 to get high. Early the next morning, drug agents executing a search warrant burst through the door and eventually took nine people into custody.
Chong said he was handcuffed and left in a holding cell for about four hours. He was then moved to an interview room, where he was told he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and would be released shortly. One agent even promised to drive him home.
He was returned to a holding cell to await his release. The door swung closed sometime April 21 and didn't open again until April 25. Chong said he was in one of the middle cells, with no toilet, no water.
He said he urinated on the cell's only furniture — a metal bench — to be able to drink the fluid. He stacked a blanket, his pants and shoes on top of the bench to try to climb up and trigger a fire sprinkler on the ceiling, but failed.
The lights went out at one point and stayed off for several days, he said. All the while, Chong said, he could hear occasional footsteps and doors opening and closing, even from the cell next door.
He tried everything he could think of to get someone's attention. He lay on the floor and squinted through a tiny crack beneath the door. He could see shadows and hear muffled voices. No one came.
"It's impossible to describe hallucinations like these," he said. "I was completely insane."
In utter confusion, Chong said, he ate some of the broken glass he had used to slice his arm. He also ingested a white powdery substance the DEA said had been left in the cell inadvertently.
Suddenly, the door swung open. Chong, badly dehydrated, cramped and likely hours from death, said it took him some time to realize he was being saved.
San Diego Fire-Rescue said paramedics were summoned to the center to transport a patient who was suspected of ingesting a white powder substance. The DEA said the substance tested positive for methamphetamine.
Chong was rushed to a nearby hospital where he spent five more days recovering from problems including kidney failure, dehydration and a perforated esophagus that was the result of swallowing the broken glass.
He was not charged with any crimes. In the statement Monday, the DEA defended the raid and said the unidentified suspect was at the house to use drugs. Chong admitted smoking marijuana but said he did not know of ecstasy or weapons at the home.
Chong's attorneys filed a $20 million claim against the DEA on Wednesday, saying his treatment constitutes torture under U.S. and international law.
The five-page notice, a precursor to a lawsuit, cites damages for pain and suffering, future medical and psychiatric treatment and loss of future earnings.
"He nearly died," said Chong's lawyer, Eugene Iredale. "If he had been there another 12 to 24 hours, he probably would have died."
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
While unfortunately the taxpayers will be on the hook for this, at bare minimum those responsible must be terminated immediately and never be allowed to hold ANY government job for the rest of their lives.
It is so easy to sue the big pockets of all of us and let the actual people responsible go. Fire their boss also as at one time we use to hold the boss accountable for the actions of those who worked for him/her. Remember the buck stops here? Now, thanks to progressives, the buck does not exist so they can claim it never got there.
Because you ignored the part where they nearly killed him from dehydration? Because it's a crime you don't like?
But when they come for you, because you own a gun they don't like, I'll still go to bat for ya.
Don’t worry, if the kid wins the lawsuit he will end up with about $1,000 after the lawyers and the government get their cut.
These DEA idiots will get a secret commendation from Zero for breaking new ground as we move “Forward” toward a totalitarian state.
The second we let our government treat ANY of us like this and then get away with it with nothing more than a slap on the wrist is the second we lose the Republic. It's sad to know that there are those out there like you who would justify away our rights.
“Why I don’t feel outraged?” if you feel no outrage then you have no sense of history or understand due process. If a druggie, as you put it, can be held in this manner you or anyone else can be held in this manner. You may recall Martin Niemöller’s famous quotation:
“ First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade
unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
You may want to think about this before you so cavalierly dismiss this incident.
And your point is? The were BOTH wrong!
Ever been dehydrated? Never been through military survival school? If you had...you would not be asking that question. There's not a whole lot of rational thoughts going on when you've been without water for that length of time. You tend to make very poor decisions...ESPECIALLY if you are not trained to recognize the signs of dehydrations. Heck...There are posts on this thread that aren't rational and I assume the posters ARE hydrated. Imagine what would happen if they had no water for 2-3 days.
“The guy filed a $20 million dollar lawsuit yesterday. Ridiculous! Maybe $1,000 dollars he deserves?”
You may want to rethink that position, and hope that you never find yourself locked up in a similar fashion.
Because you are a leftist control freak.
Reading over it again, I had the impression he ingested it after he had been in there for a few days, and was hallucinating. Possibly about the same time he was eating the shards of glass : |
This is troubling on sooo many levels.
May God guide our course.
Tatt
I am not a fan of the DEA, nor am I sympathetic to a druggie getting caught. While 4 days in a cell without water, food or toilet is excessive, this is a healthy 23 year old and he was not beaten, tortured or denigrated in any way by his captors.
Think of all the people that survive for days under the rubble of their homes because of earthquakes, tornados, etc.
Basically, this kid lawyered up and is sensationalizing the experience for maximum payout. And the newspaper is eating it up because it gives them the chance to take their pound of flesh from the government, which will somehow translate into “Bush’s Fault”
I am not saying he doesn’t a payout. I am just saying that this seems a bit over sensationaized.
No one scan survive 40 days without water. The guy is dead or a liar,
You misplaced your decimal point. The article says 400 days.
Four days without water can kill.
I am not a fan of the DEA, nor am I sympathetic to a druggie getting caught. While 4 days in a cell without water, food or toilet is excessive, this is a healthy 23 year old and he was not beaten, tortured or denigrated in any way by his captors.
Think of all the people that survive for days under the rubble of their homes because of earthquakes, tornados, etc.
Basically, this kid lawyered up and is sensationalizing the experience for maximum payout. And the newspaper is eating it up because it gives them the chance to take their pound of flesh from the government, which will somehow translate into “Bush’s Fault”
I am not saying he doesn’t deserve a payout. He does. I am just saying that this seems a bit over sensationalized.
$500,000 is about right.
I agree with many of the posters on here. Make this department of the DEA an example and fire all of them today.
Forgetting to turn the lights out before going home is one thing. Forgetting a human being in a cell to the point of near death is a whole different level of incompetence.
Lock me up to the point I am forced to drink my urine... yeah, $20 million sounds about right.
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