Posted on 05/17/2011 5:32:39 AM PDT by Red Badger
ASHEVILLE, N.C. An enzyme found in cheese triggered false drug test results that led Buncombe County deputies to think a man with 91 pounds of tortilla dough was actually carrying that much cocaine, the sheriff said.
Antonio Hernandez spent four days in jail in Asheville earlier this month before tests by a state lab came back showing he was carrying food instead of drugs.
A deputy stopped Hernandez on May 1 and found what turned out to be a mix of cheese, shrimp and tortilla and tamale dough in his truck. A portable kit used by deputies changed colors, indicating the mixture was illegal drugs.
Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan said he didn't know until this case that some foods, like cheese, can give false positives on field drug tests. He plans to have his officers talk to the company that makes the tests.
"What we are going to do now is check with the manufacturers and find out what they have found can cause false positives and put that into the training with our officers," Duncan told the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Officials at the state lab said they have seen false positive drug test results from food before, but it is rare.
Hernandez's arrest angered Latino groups, who said he was targeted because of his race. He came to the United States in 1985 to harvest grapes and strawberries and became a legal resident four years later. He currently works for a carpet cleaning company in Carson, Calif., and was taking vacation to drive across the country and see his sister in Johnson City, Tenn., for the first time in nearly a decade.
But Hernandez missed a turn and ended up in Asheville. He told the newspaper through an interpreter that he saw steam coming from his truck and pulled over. A deputy approached, and Hernandez thought the officer wanted him to move and drove away with his hazard lights on. Officers thought he was trying to flee, and punctured his tires.
The sheriff's office is writing Hernandez a $400 check to cover the food he lost when deputies thought it was drugs. But Hernandez said that isn't enough to also cover other expenses like the impound fee for his truck.
"That doesn't pay economically for what I lost," he said. "That doesn't pay for my tires."
Hmmm been here 25 years an doesn’t speak or understand English ?
Now they just bring out fido to do an open air search around your vehicle then perform a false alert trick to counter all you said.
Probable cause clause closed an they strip your ride in an aggressive manner. If they find nothing your vehicle is still trashed you lose. If they are really pissed they salt the mine an drop a wee bit of contraband or said ham sandwich weapon as they search.
Drug interdiction has replaced traffic fine revenue work. Property seizure incidental to the crime is income for said municipalities.
I counter with seatbelt, cruise control an well maintained vehicle to avoid such pricks in the first place.
You either have no idea what you are talking about and yet are unable to realize it or else you are deliberately posting lies.
He's from Kalifornia. It was unnecessary...............
Is this an etiquette thing? Like a British State dinner, noöne can leave the table until the Royal guest does. So if you are anywhere and a cop shows up, you're fixed there until he leaves?
You either have no idea what you are talking about and yet are unable to realize it or else you are deliberately posting lies.
Help me out here. Are you trolling or are you really so stupid as to think it illegitimate for police officers to temporarily detain motorists while investigating their illegal actions on public roadways?
Good point....lol !
Do you have a link for this "report"?
Do you have a list of the illegal actions that were being investigated?
The sheriff got in between moochie and her tamale mix.
OK, so I wasn't there.
But, it sounds to me like the person here needs to learn to speak English a little better.
And, FWIW, the I-85 (and I-40, to a lesser extent) corridors are major drug trafficking highways. Major busts, all of the time. The deputy wasn't making a huge stretch (Latino, on a major drug corridor, appears to flee, carrying a large amount of an unknown substance that tests positive for drugs) ... I think that this particular one needs to be looked at as an opportunity for improvment of procedures, but little more than that.
If you want to learn about this case then Google is your friend.
You specifically mentioned a "report" and described its contents.
Are you now admitting that this was a lie?
I had no idea cops were trained analytical chemists!
Those guys are SOOOO smart.
</sarcasm>
I agree. Based on previous articles regarding this case everything about it seemed good up until the false positive from the field test of the seized substance. But so long as the test was administered correctly this is not officer misconduct either. They are given testing equipment and procedures and a certain result indicates a specific course of action (arrest and lab tests) which they then undertook. The cops had previously said they would investigate the test itself and now we have this report saying that they are doing so. I see no problem here.
People who falsely accuse cops of misconduct are not promoting liberty. If false accusations against police promoted liberty then leftists would not constantly be pushing bogus accusations against the police.
So far the only thing the guy appears guilty of is having something that produced a false positive on whatever field drug test they were using. It cost him 4 days of vacation, a set of tires, and 4 days of impound fees for his truck.
He's apparently a legal immigrant who has a real job, and that was probably a pretty steep hit for the guy. He got a raw deal.
What are you complaining about here?
Should the cops not have field tests for suspected drugs?
Should they haul in everyone who is found possessing an unidentified substance?
The reason that leftists use sarcasm so much is that it so rarely leads to truth. I think that if you get in the habit of expressing your ideas in a straightforward manner then you will end up saying fewer irrational and false things, assuming that this is what you want.
What kind of cheese was it? Cheese and Chong?
As a degreed analytical chemist with 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry, I know that tests like this one are screening tests, and not definitive in any way.
To use them as definitive tests is unprofessional, ignorant and, hopefully, grounds for a lucrative lawsuit.
Any questions?
Nacho cheese...............
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