|
Man
Whose
Grandmother's
Ashes
Were
Mistaken
for
Methamphetamine
Suing
for
Wrongful
Imprisonment
6/5/98
- Stacy Dimakakos for DRCNet On May 28, Michael Anthony Horne filed suit for false imprisonment against the city of San Antonio, Texas. Horne, who could not raise bail money, sat in jail for over a month after San Antonio Police mistook the earthly remains of his deceased grandmother for methamphetamine. While incarcerated, Horne lost his job, his apartment, and his military reserve status. In July of last year, Horne pulled over to the side of a San Antonio road to take a nap. Officer Michael Katsfey saw Horne asleep in his vehicle and took that as probable cause to conduct what Assistant City Attorney Amy Embanks called a "justified search" of the vehicle. Officer Katsfey arrested Horne upon finding a small bag filled with a grayish powdery substance, despite Horne's pleas that the bag contained only his grandmother's ashes. According to San Antonio police, an initial test of the substance came back positive for methamphetamine. Horne spent the next month in jail waiting for the results of a second test, which, in fact confirmed Horne's original statements as to the bag's contents. Assistant City Attorney Embanks told The Week Online that although the initial test was taken nearly a year ago, it is still "too early in the investigation to know why the first test was so inaccurate." She also said that Horne's month in jail was simply the result of the city "trying to exercise federal law" and that "conducting a second test takes up to 2-3 weeks."
-- END --
|
Issue #45, 6/5/98
DEA Holds Hearing on Use of Herbicide in Eradication | "Big Six" Accounting Firm Bought Laundered Currency at Discount, US Government Says | Man Whose Grandmother's Ashes Were Mistaken for Methamphetamine Suing for Wrongful Imprisonment | Proposed "Multinational Anti-Narcotics Base" in Panama Now Uncertain | US to Build Anti-Drug Military Training Center in Peru | Medical Necessity Defense Allowed in McWilliams Case | California Global Days | California Primaries Report | Hemp Update | Nominations Being Accepted for DPF Awards | Editorial: The UN, Making the World Safe for War
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
|
PERMISSION to reprint or
redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby
granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and,
where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your
publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks
payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for
materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we
request notification for our records, including physical copies where
material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202)
293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank
you.
Articles of a purely
educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet
Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
|
