Posted on 07/31/2013 2:11:42 PM PDT by bestintxas
The Justice Department has agreed to pay $4.1 million to a California college student left in a Drug Enforcement Administration holding cell last year, according to two people familiar with the case.
Daniel Chong was detained in an April 2012 drug raid in San Diego and left in a windowless holding cell for four days without food or water. He says he drank his own urine to stay alive.
The people familiar with the case spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the settlement before it is officially announced. His attorney filed a $20 million claim against the government last year.
A DEA spokesman, Rusty Payne, referred questions Monday to the Justice Department, which handled settlement negotiations. A call to the Justice Department's public affairs office was not returned. Chong, who was attending University of California, San Diego, was at a friend's house in April 2012 when a DEA raid netted 18,000 ecstasy pills, other drugs and weapons. Chong and eight others were taken into custody.
Agents told Chong he would not be charged and had him wait in the 5-by-10-foot cell at DEA offices in San Diego. The door did not reopen for four days, when agents found him severely dehydrated and covered in his own feces.
Chong said he began to hallucinate on the third day. He urinated on a metal bench to drink his urine. He stacked a blanket, his pants and shoes on the bench and tried to reach an overhead fire sprinkler, futilely swatting at it with his cuffed hands to set it off.
Chong said last year that he gave up and accepted death. He bit into his eyeglasses to break them. He said he
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Came as a surprise to me, too. As long as its not income, it isn’t taxed. A settlement for lost income might be taxed.
Still, he’s very sick man who will only see about $2.4 million; I have no idea how bad his medical expenses are going to be.
Took a wrong turn off the Stuart Highway (really, really long road that literally runs from one side of the Australian continent to the other, through a lot of desert) and hit a kangaroo, disabling the car. One of the big rules about desert driving is you carry enough drinking water - and I’d been careless and hadn’t.
I did have some water, and I drank the wiper water (which had detergent in it but was still reasonably potable) but still wound up running out.
Only smart thing I did was stay with the vehicle - a lot of people have died in these situations by trying to walk their way out. The weather was also relatively mild at the time.
End funding to all the unconstitutional alphabet tyrants!
I could do 4 days for 4 million - heck, I’d take 2 million.
“innocent people in prison for YEARS get less in recompense”
Those are people who get imprisoned in state prisons but they get three squares a day and all the water they want. It is quite different to go four days without food and water. One would expect more competence from the gov’t fools. I know that is not true but.....it can still be expected.
“I learned a new word today. Thanks.”
Yeah, but which definition fits the poster who drew his ire? ;-)
u cant fire union workers can ya
The guy easily could of died.. I don’t like excessive civil rewards but in this case the guy deserves it.
I saw this fellow (Daniel Chong) on a TV news story about this incident, and he seems amazingly non-vindictive, saying it was just a “mistake”, and pretty much turning the other cheek, even while confirming that it was a horrible experience. I suppose he does not want to financially destroy those who harmed him. That’s very Christian of him, but, still, Chong certainly does deserve compensation from those who harmed him. Instead, in our crazy, mixed up society, it is the taxpayers who will compensate him.
The other side of this is a recent George Will line: “When there is no penalty for failure, failures proliferate.” But George missed it slightly. That should be “When there is no penalty to the failers for failure, failures proliferate.” George F. Will
When I went through survival school, they mentioned that drinking your own urine if you were already dehydrated could actually cause you more problems, as your urine is the kindney's way of eliminating the toxins in your body, and that it's has salt in it. When you're dehydrated, and your urine is really dark, there's not enough water in there to help process these toxins that you're going to re-ingest. There are folks all over who drink theirs, purportedly for health reasons, but I'm guessing they're better hydrated than this guy was.
“I’d give him more — and then disband the DEA.”
The DEA and BATF are the two biggest collections of clowns in law enforcement.
How much would you take to spend 4 days locked in a 5X10 foot windowless room with no food or water or sanitary facilities? Maybe you can make them a better deal.
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