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.
I'd like to know what type of field test they used to ID the substance. My guess is that the cops assumed it was drugs and any test result was changed to "yup, its drugs" becasue it fits a prejudiced opinion than a negative test result. Same type of thinking going on in Nifong's head in the Duke case. She's guilty no matter what the evidence says.
The on;ly thing I can think of is that they used a portable FT-IR spectrometer for field analysis. The specral libraries may contain examples of narcotics cut with flour. The sample spectrum from the condoms would correlate to the spectral signal of the flour used to dilute the drugs and a false positive would be obtained. The technician doing the field test only knows how to push the buttons and not visually inspect the spectra for consistency, nor does a confirmatory test on the material. The company, Smiths Detection, makes these instruments.
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You scoff but if everyone went the IT/CPA/MBA/EE routes then we would soon have no culture. btw...I majored in Comp Lit and managed to earn enough to retire at fifty (never taught a day either). How are you doing?
Yeah, but back then the drinking age was reasonable. Today's alcohol regulators in the USA treat adults aged 18-20 like children.
The flour tested negative and the cops lied about the result.
"Please explain how the HELL flour tests positive for opium and coke! Sure sounds like a setup; there had to be a trace of each sufficient to get a reading."
The idea that drug tests are infallible is naive. All tests have some false positives. There is always the possibility of contamination by the person(s) or instrument(s) involved in the tests; and the assumption of guilt by an officer doing the field tests can bias the result with the well known placebo effect.
If there "were a trace" the later detailed testing would have reveled that and the city wouldn't be paying $180,000.
Or it didn't test positive at all.
I own and operate two companies that I started from scratch. One with investors, the other was boostrapped -- with one other manager as an LLC.
We enjoy a considerable net worth that is a private figure.
I have no intention of ever 'retiring'. It runs in the family. My dad left industry at 59, taught at NC State for 12 years, did consulting for 8 more, and now builds museum quality wooden ship models in a house we bought for them.
FWIW, my education was physiology in Marine Science ... which I enjoyed greatly but did NOTHING with. And I teach as well ;-)
I am glad you enjoyed your comparative literature. Remember it's captains of industry who accumulate wealth and make the Arts possible ... to extend 'culture'. Extending and enhancing culture is a valued enterprise on its own.
Enjoy FR.
Why is this a civil rights case?
"The fact that she had them in plain view in her luggage should have raised doubt about their use for contraband transport in a drug enforcement agent of even minimal intellectual capacity."
Would someone of minimal intellectual capacity be able to understand that there are complete idiots who _have_ tried to bring drugs in essentially in plain sight?
"Just proves my contention that drug cops are the same class of low-life they are supposedly protecting us from."
You've got a frighteningly low standard of proof.
Well, the government certainly made it easy for her!
"If there "were a trace" the later detailed testing would have reveled that and the city wouldn't be paying $180,000."
You been living in the United States long?
Woops, woops, woops, I keep forgetting I'm on FR. Let me adjust my mindset:
Stupid f*cking pigs, this is just further proof that stupid f*cking pigs are just stupid f*cking pigs. Bring on more stories about stupid f*cking pigs getting killed by illegal aliens, at least that gives their lives some value.
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There, I need to just create a couple of form replies to cut-and-paste into cop threads since that's where 99% of them go.
But, what the h$ll, they can still sign up with Uncle Sam and go to kill terrorists, handle explosives and all......but, "OH God NO!", not ever be responsible enough until 21 to consume alcohol. Go figure.
Yes.
You can bet the city would rather go to court than pay $180,000 if there were actual traces of drugs in the flour. Traces of drugs would give them probable cause.
I am now an independent film maker and I (like the vast majority of indies) have never received a dime of public or corporate funding. I know scores of writers, artists, actors, musicians, photographers, poets, choreographers. I do not know even one whose efforts are subsidised in that fashion. We will all make it or not based on our own effort.
I am glad that you're doing well too.
Isn't that the way it always works?
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