WTF?!? " Woman Spends A Month In Jail After Cops Mistake SpaghettiOs For Meth"

[catbyte]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/30/ashley-huff-spaghettios-meth_n_5909616.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

"uh oh…

A Georgia woman was held in jail for one month after cops mistook sauce from a can of SpaghettiOs for methamphetamine, the Gainesville Times reports.

Ashley Huff, a 23-year-old woman from the city of Commerce, was the passenger in a car that was pulled over on July 2. Police noticed she had a spoon in her bag that had “some residue” on it. Huff told them it was just SpaghettiO sauce, but they slapped her with a charge of possession of methamphetamine.

Huff was jailed for about two weeks, then released on earned recognizance, her attorney, Chris van Rossem, told The Huffington Post. However, one of the conditions of her release was that she would make a series of court appointments, and after she missed one, she was reincarcerated on August 2.

Unable to afford to pay bond, Huff stayed behind bars until September 18, when a lab analysis found that the substance on the spoon contained no illicit substances.

Van Rossem speculated that the reason the crime lab analysis took so long was simply because of the sheer volume of cases the lab needs to process. Huff’s results, he said, actually came back “relatively quickly.”

...snip

"She is now contemplating taking legal action, according to KRON 4, but police officers say they acted in good faith. The arresting officer said he “found it strange” that Huff would eat SpaghettiOs and put the spoon in her purse.

Her explanation is that she had been eating the SpaghettiOs out of the can in the car, and after she was finished, threw the can out and tossed the spoon into her bag.

Officers also say they conducted a field test, and the substance tested positive for methamphetamine. Field tests, however, can often be incorrect, as was evidenced in a 2013 case in which a white brick that field-tested positive for cocaine ended up just being homemade soap. "
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What the hell? They REALLY need to get a better field test if SpaghettiOs causes that outcome. Unless, of course, Chef Boyardee is subversively dosing little American kids with uppers, LOL. Methinks she might have a case...

[Wait Wut]

1. This would be funny...

...if it hadn't cost her a month of her freakin' life. I hope she sues and wins. It would hopefully force "them" to improve the field tests, or at least consider an "inconclusive until lab testing complete". It isn't this poor woman's fault that the lab is too busy...apparently testing Spaghettios.

[packman]

2. My mom just put 1/2 cup of wine in our sauce

to make it a "little better". That Chef is really a hellofa cook-where was Walter when this was going down?

[kairos12]

34. Otherwise known as Breaking Bread--sticks.

[djean111]

3. I tend to doubt that they even performed a valid field test.

[malaise]

4. Contemplating

By the time I was done suing them I'd be eating Italian at the Olive Garden twice a week

[littlewolf]

7. by the time I was done with them in court I would be eating

better then Olive Garden - trust me.

this is soooooo stupid, people really do need to get fired
for shit like this.

[malaise]

14. LOL

but I was merely thinking about an upgrade from spagetti-O .

[Enthusiast]

30. Pfft!

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[G_j]

5. perhaps it is stupid stuff like this, that helps produce

"the sheer volume of cases the lab needs to process".

[RKP5637]

9. Exactly! Far too many cops promote guilty by default until proven innocent. n/t

[CBGLuthier]

6. Although I am of the opinion that SpaghettiOs are a crime against nature I never thought anyone

should be arrested for eating them.

[immoderate]

16. I disagree. Throw away the key!

--imm

[marble falls]

8. How much kick back does the sheriff get from private jail company for every bunk with a body in it?

[RKP5637]

10. Following the "money trail" always proves interesting. n/t

[marble falls]

12. Its a big deal. These companies are corrupt and corrupting. They give the police no incentive to....

process and release prisoners even for innocence.

[RKP5637]

20. And some judges that have been found to be in on the action $$$$$ too! n/t

[MindPilot]

41. It's not a kickback; it's a contractual obligation.

The for-profit prison companies--CCA & GEO--contract for a 90%-95% fulfillment rate. If fewer than 90% of their beds are occupied, the police or sheriffs' department pay huge penalties to the prison companies. It is a real racket.

[noiretextatique]

11. it is a war on people...and common sense

not a war on drugs. how much resources will be wasted on this dumb shit? i hope she gets a big settlement.

[unblock]

13. they should really go after chef boyardee, not the spaghetti-o addicts.

[newfie11]

15. Hopefully she can eat steak after this

I'm thinking a major lawsuit is in order.

[Jim__]

17. If the test is that unreliable, it should not be sufficient for charges.

If the test is that unreliable, they should need more evidence before someone is held in jail. Before you know it, the cops will have a, somewhat unreliable, mind-reading test and use that to jail people on suspicion.

[randome]

18. Stranger things have happened but...

...maybe the test was correct. I mean, all we have to go on is her word. If the police can produce the evidence, then it becomes a much trickier situation for her.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]

[Mariana]

22. "... a lab analysis found that the substance on the spoon

contained no illicit substances."

[catbyte]

26. Correct, Mariana. That's why they dropped all charges against her.

[Politicalboi]

29. Even if it did have traces of drugs

If she wasn't carrying any drugs why arrest her. Just clean the spoon off or toss it in the trash and let her go. There should be a bar that the police have to go by. If they're carrying drugs for a lesser amount it's going to cost taxpayers to arrest them, let them go. Unless caught dealing, it's not worth anyone's time to mess with such a small amount of drugs.

[randome]

36. Agreed. Absent evidence to the contrary and no danger involved, let it go.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font][hr]

[logosoco]

19. I'm still kind of hung up on the fact that the cop thought that putting a spoon in a purse

was a reason to be suspicious.

And I don't really know what meth or it's residue looks like, but I do know what spaghetti-o residue looks like.

We need to end the war on drugs. It is costing communities way more and I don't seem to see where it is actually saving any lives (if that was the reason for it in the first place).

[RKP5637]

21. +++ 1,000 +++ n/t

[VA_Jill]

23. ^^^^^^^THIS

How dumb are Georgia cops, anyway? This is giving me a new respect for the ones in FloriDUH!

[Mariana]

25. Cops can pretend anything is "suspicious".

I have a feeling they decided this woman was a druggie before they ever found the spoon. If that's true, anything they found anywhere would have been "suspicious" to them.

[Eleanors38]

28. Yes, considering all the jokes about all the things in a purse. Sheesh.

[Rozlee]

40. I carry a spoon in my car. And a fork too, for that matter.

So sue me, I'm a slob that eats in my car and I sometimes chow down on yogurt or other meals I buy on the move and from delis. I'm always in a hurry and if I didn't eat while pulled over at a park or parking lot, I'd miss most of my meals altogether. I wonder if chili would come out positive for meth?

[Chakab]

24. "Officers also say they conducted a field test"

These people lie with impunity.

That's why it kills me when people say that 90% of cops are good and that there are just a few bad apples.

The problem is with police culture in the US. "Good cops" have no qualms about lying through their teeth when it suits them or backing other officers who've violated department regulations or even committed crimes.

[rhett o rick]

27. First of all, our priorities are totally screwed if we are worrying about meth residue in a spoon.

Third, poor people are not flight risks, why was she ever in jail? And (C) if field tests are that inaccurate, they shouldn't be used.

Arresting her because the officer "found it strange", is not "acting in good faith". I think arresting her for a mysterious reside in a spoon is STRANGE. It seems to me that good faith means you assume the person is innocent until proven guilty.

[Eleanors38]

31. It's da WOD. Bidness as usual.

[rhett o rick]

37. I am not familiar with WOD. Is that "World Of Darkness"? nm

[Eleanors38]

38. War On Drugs.

[rhett o rick]

39. Oh course, Duh! And you are right on the money. nm

[yuiyoshida]

32. I heard about this story on the radio...

Unfortunately my internet was down for a week, and I was stuck listening to the radio. I sure missed being on DU, and was shocked how many conservative radio stations have popped up in the San Francisco Bay Area. I think we have lost the radio waves battle here in the city, god..I wanted to vomit, switching channels and hearing either Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck. Thank goodness I have my internet back, and I can stay away from the local stations. I made sure to pay two months in advance, just in case another AT&T try to take it down again, due to lack of payment.

[R0ckyRac00n]

33. Mmmm

Meth Boyardee

[Dollface]

35. "...she had been eating the SpaghettiOs out of the can in the car and she threw the can out..."

Another good reason not to litter (if she threw the can out the window).

[ReRe]

42. I was just thinking about this.....

.... 'ya know, I think if they didn't make shit up all over this country, they would not have a damn thing to do. Would be a good study to do: How many arrests turn out to be false accusations? I'm serious. They have to make shit up to arrest people over, or they wouldn't have a damn thing to do. Does one really have no recourse when they do this?

[dembotoz]

43. gateway drug first spaghetti os next olive garden

save her while we still can