Posted on 01/04/2007 4:58:32 AM PST by grjr21
A Bryn Mawr College student wrongly jailed for three weeks on drug charges by Philadelphia police has settled her civil-rights case for $180,000.
Janet H. Lee, now a senior, was arrested at Philadelphia International Airport in 2003 after screeners found three condoms filled with white powder in her carry-on and city police said field tests showed that the substances likely contained opium and cocaine.
Lee was held in lieu of $500,000 bond for 21 days, until further drug testing proved that her unlikely story - that the powder was just flour - was true.
As part of an exam ritual in her dorm, Lee had filled the condoms with flour to make a phallic toy that freshmen squeezed to reduce stress. She had found it so funny that she had packed them to take home to California to show friends after exams.
Lee's civil-rights case against the city had been scheduled for trial today in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.
"Everyone wants their day in court, so it was difficult" to settle, in part because she will never know why the flour initially tested positive for drugs, she said yesterday.
"It's like everyone was at fault, but no one was responsible," Lee said.
At least, she said, the settlement means she will not have to testify about what it is like to spend three weeks in a city jail for a crime she did not commit, particularly after spending much of the last three years working to heal herself psychologically.
"Part of going to trial would have meant that I have to acknowledge losses and admit that this had damaged me," she said. "I didn't want to have to admit that."
Lynne Sitarski, chief deputy of the city solicitor's civil-rights division, said the city "is not admitting wrongdoing or liability."
The settlement, the city lawyer said, was "in the best interests of the city."
Lee, now 21, was not physically injured while jailed, said her lawyer, Jeffrey Ibrahim.
One of the settlement provisions allows Lee to meet with city police to discuss what happened.
"Leadership is going to sit down and listen with her to see what went on," Ibrahim said.
Lee has heard criticism that carrying white substances onto an airplane was a foolhardy act. But, she said yesterday, she did not know at the time that drug dealers often carry drugs in condoms. "I was naive, really stupid," she said.
Nonetheless, her lawyer said, the police drug test should not have detected drugs.
"Under the circumstances, something went terribly wrong," Ibrahim said. "We're trying to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again."
Asked if others had successfully sued or settled claims involving false-positive drug tests in Philadelphia in the last two or three years, Sitarski said that no one had.
Lee, a comparative literature major, said she planned to use the settlement money to pay for graduate school, though she has not determined what kind of graduate work she will pursue. Law school is an unlikely option, she said.
We know that now. But we have the benefit of hindsight. At the time, it sure did appear that she was attempting to "smuggle" three condoms filled with a white powder through an airport screener -- powder that tested positive for cocaine.
"The real story, as you agree, is that the Philadelphia police cannot tell cocaine from flour, and cannot staff their department with personnel able to tell the difference without the use of technology."
True. But if they didn't use technology and mistakenly arrested you for trafficking in cocaine, I'm sure you would quickly and forcefully insist that they do.
"At $180,000, the city got off lightly."
At $180,000, the city got screwed. In my opinion.
(With special thanks to W.C. Fields for that.)
Geez: Thats awful. Looks like a Dyke fest.
I agree with you. The whole thing was a set-up.
If it appeared she was attempting to smuggle cocaine in that way, to an experienced narcotics officer, it must have also seemed that she was the most incredibly inept smuggler in human history, yes? And to an experienced narcotics officer, don't you think that ineptitude and sheer naivete might have prompted a red flag or two?
Now I know you're always going to come down on the side of the state, but it seems to me that someone with a few months of experience under his or her belt can tell the difference between coke and flour by using one of the five senses alone, without the aid of sophisticated electronic equipment, and the difference between a cocaine smuggler and a ditzy comp lit major from Brynn Mawr.
True. But if they didn't use technology and mistakenly arrested you for trafficking in cocaine, I'm sure you would quickly and forcefully insist that they do.
That goes without saying, yes? If I wasn't trafficking cocaine, I'd look to everything and anything that proves I wasn't.
At $180,000, the city got screwed. In my opinion.
So if the cops put you in the slammer for no reason at all, your time and your freedom isn't worth $60K a week? What is it worth, then?
...Lee has heard criticism that carrying white substances onto an airplane was a foolhardy act...
I graduated from Bryn Mawr several years ago. Something like 30% of the students were lesbians. About 99.9% were liberals. I was neither!
You must have been lonesome and the smartest girl on campus.
They had a valid reason to do what they did. I just hope I'd be smarter not to do something so stupid.
I have lots of friends but I don't tell them all dirty jokes. ;)
$180,000?
Why didn't I think of that.
Har!
I think it's fairly safe to assume that you wouldn't be hauling around skindros filled with flour in your luggage, rp!
Yes. Or more accuarately, their own ignorance and stupidity and incompetence.
She bears no responsibility for what happened?
None. Zero. Nada. Unless carrying flour in rubbers is a crime now.
Oh. And how do we know this wasn't a dry run for smuggling real drugs?
Who cares if it was or wasn't. This isn't Oceania in 1984. We don't have thought crimes in this country, at least I hope not. But there's no surprise you are once again defending the drug warriors, even at their greatest height of incompetence.
What's real sad is that coke is about as easy as it gets to test for. You don't even really need a testing kit, you just put some on your gums and see if it numbs. Plus, coke doesn't even have the same consistancy that flour does. Coke looks/feels more like baking soda. Obviously these idiot cops have never done any baking in their lives. I can certainly tell the difference between baking soda and flour when I drop the soda onto the flour.
Oh, you're one of those -- "if it's not illegal I can do it and don't you dare criticize me" types.
Well, you're 100% correct. It's not illegal to put flour in condoms and try to sneak them by airport security. Neither is it illegal to carry a tinfoil cutout of a gun in your briefcase. Or a short piece of pipe with a battery and wires. You go right ahead and do that. Actually, I insist you do that. It's your right as an American citizen, dagnubbit!
You, sir, are the shining example of why we have so many laws in this country.
Are you suggesting that airport screeners do this? That they put unknown substances on their gums? I'm surprised you don't suggest they snort it or inject it to test for purity.
But let's play your silly game and say the airport screeners tested this way. You're going through security carrying your flour-filled condoms which you always do (hey, it's not a crime!). A screener tests it by rubbing some on his gums (the official Nate505 Airport Screener Drug Testing Procedure #B56a) and states that it was numbing and you're under arrest.
That's it? You're going to accept that?!
You're a funny guy.
There's a huge difference between 'criticize' and 'arrest'.
Well, you're 100% correct. It's not illegal to put flour in condoms and try to sneak them by airport security. Neither is it illegal to carry a tinfoil cutout of a gun in your briefcase. Or a short piece of pipe with a battery and wires. You go right ahead and do that. Actually, I insist you do that. It's your right as an American citizen, dagnubbit!
I remember when I was 11 I carried a Nintentdo gun controller, used to play a game called Dunk Hunt (and a couple other games), on my carry on bag. They saw it pretty immediately thru the xray. They took it out, saw it wasn't a real gun, and just told me to put it on my check on baggage. I certainly wasn't put in jail for 3 weeks for it. I'd hope I wouldn't be arrested for the til foil thing. But weapons are a different issue. There's a lot more fear that can be attained from pretending to have a weapon, as opposed to flour in a rubber.
You, sir, are the shining example of why we have so many laws in this country.
And you, sir, are the shining example of why people think we we have so many idiotic laws in this country.
No, I'm not suggesting airport screeners do that. I would suggest the cops do that. But if they don't want to for safety concerns, you can easily look at coke and flour and see the visible difference between the two. Coke has a much finer consistancy, like baking powder. I'd also insist they test it with their kit about three times. Apparently, the cops and their testing procedures failed big time in this case.
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