DEA forgets locked up 4/20 marijuana smoker for five days with no food and water but with meth!

Daniel Chong, locked up by DEA for five days with no food or water after 4/20 bust (photo: NBC San Diego)

DEA agents in San Diego conducted a raid late on Friday night, 4/20, as seven college kids were celebrating the marijuana holiday.  The feds swooped in and rounded up seven suspects as well as marijuana, ecstasy, mushrooms, “bath salts”, and prescription meds.  They took the seven into custody, handcuffed them, and placed them in various holding cells for processing.  The only problem was that DEA then only released six of the suspects and completely forgot about 23-year-old Daniel Chong (dig the irony)…

(NBC San Diego) He said agents questioned him, and then told him he could go home. One agent even offered him a ride, Chong said. No criminal charges were filed against him.

But Chong did not go home that night. Instead, he was placed in a cell for five days without any human contact and was not given food or drink. In his desperation, he said he was forced to drink his own urine.

“I had to do what I had to do to survive….I hallucinated by the third day,” Chong said. “I was completely insane.”

Chong said he lost roughly 15 pounds during the time he was alone. His lawyer confirmed that Chong ingested a powdery substance found inside the cell. Later testing revealed the substance was methamphetamine.

This young man became so distraught and desperate that he broke his eyeglasses and tried to suicide by cutting his wrists and swallowing the glass.  He was admitted to the hospital with failing kidneys.  He missed his midterm exams at UCSD.  None of the drugs Daniel Chong might have done at the 4/20 party could have endangered his life as badly as the federal government trying to stop him from doing those drugs.  Of course, the feds will tell you it was all just an unfortunate mistake:

DEA San Diego Acting Special Agent-In-Charge William R. Sherman says in a statement Wednesday that he was troubled by the treatment of Daniel Chong and extends his “deepest apologies” to him.

Sherman says the event is not indicative of the high standards to which he holds his employees. He says he has personally ordered an extensive review of his office’s policies and procedures.

Troubled, you say, Agent Sherman?  The only words I want to hear from you are “I resign”.  When someone is tortured and left for dead in your offices on your watch, it’s not enough to pass the blame onto some underling who may not have followed your “high standards”.

(NBC San Diego) Former federal prosecutor John Kirby said he’s familiar with the holding cells at the DEA office. He told NBC 7 San Diego that the rooms have no bathrooms and the suspect likely went without food or water.

Given his familiarity with the DEA, Kirby said this incident is “inconceivable” because every detainee is processed, and it would be hard to get lost in the shuffle.

“You talk about whether they might have done it intentionally, No way because somebody’s career is done over this,” added Kirby.

So it was just an unfortunate accident, huh?  If this were a murderer or rapist or arsonist who’d been forgotten in a cell, that might be an accident I could have some sympathy for, because at least you initially placed him in a cell for the purposes of protecting society from a bad man.  But in this “event”, you locked up a college kid who was partying to protect him from himself.  Yes, somebody’s career should be done over this, and that starts at the top with Special Agent-In-Charge William R. Sherman and rolls downhill to every underling on duty that night who handled Daniel Chong and ignored his days of cries, screams, and kicking and pounding the walls to get some help.

This kid better end up with a couple of commas in his bank balance by the time this has gone through the courts.

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