The DEA has agreed to pay $4.1 million to San Diego college student Daniel Chong after rounding him up in a drug sweep last year and then forgetting him in a holding cell for five days without food or water.
Chong attorney Eugene Iredale announced Tuesday that he reached a settlement with the Justice Department. He didn’t even to file a lawsuit.
Chong’s not-so-excellent adventure began on the night of April 20, 2012, when the engineering student went to a friend’s house in University City to celebrate the pot-smokers’ holiday. He was unaware that the house had been under surveillance by a federal drug task force, and had slept over when DEA agents raided the place early the next morning.
Agents found 18,000 ecstasy tablets, as well as marijuana and several weapons in the home. They also found Chong sleeping on the living room couch. DEA agents transported Chong and six other people in the house to the DEA’s San Diego office for follow-up questioning.
– Read the entire article at AlterNet.
