http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/02/us/california-forgotten-prisoner/index.html?hpt=us_c2
A San Diego college student filed a legal claim Wednesday for damages suffered when he was left handcuffed and without food or water in a Drug Enforcement Administration holding cell for five days last month.
A DEA statement said Daniel Chong, 23, was "accidentally left" in a holding cell.
"Accidentally? He almost died," said Chong's lawyer, Gene Iredale. "It's inexplicable."
Chong drank his own urine to survive as his cries for help were ignored by federal agents and inmates in nearby cells, Iredale said.
The fifth-year engineering student at the University of California, San Diego, was detained on the morning of April 21, a Saturday, when DEA agents raided a house they suspected was being used to distribute MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy.
A multi-agency narcotics task force including state agents detained nine people and seized about 18,000 MDMA pills, marijuana, prescription medications, hallucinogenic mushrooms, several guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition from the house, the DEA said.
Chong admitted going to the house "to get high with his friends," the DEA said. He later told a San Diego TV station that he knew nothing about the other drugs and guns. He was never formally arrested or charged, the DEA said.
The agents sent seven suspects to county jail and released another person, but Chong "was accidentally left in one of the cells," the DEA said. The agency did not explain how he was forgotten for five days in the small, windowless cell.
Discuss your thoughts below.
A San Diego college student filed a legal claim Wednesday for damages suffered when he was left handcuffed and without food or water in a Drug Enforcement Administration holding cell for five days last month.
A DEA statement said Daniel Chong, 23, was "accidentally left" in a holding cell.
"Accidentally? He almost died," said Chong's lawyer, Gene Iredale. "It's inexplicable."
Chong drank his own urine to survive as his cries for help were ignored by federal agents and inmates in nearby cells, Iredale said.
The fifth-year engineering student at the University of California, San Diego, was detained on the morning of April 21, a Saturday, when DEA agents raided a house they suspected was being used to distribute MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy.
A multi-agency narcotics task force including state agents detained nine people and seized about 18,000 MDMA pills, marijuana, prescription medications, hallucinogenic mushrooms, several guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition from the house, the DEA said.
Chong admitted going to the house "to get high with his friends," the DEA said. He later told a San Diego TV station that he knew nothing about the other drugs and guns. He was never formally arrested or charged, the DEA said.
The agents sent seven suspects to county jail and released another person, but Chong "was accidentally left in one of the cells," the DEA said. The agency did not explain how he was forgotten for five days in the small, windowless cell.
Discuss your thoughts below.
