Pubdate: Thu, 03 May 2012
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2012 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Julie Watson, Associated Press

HORROR IN HOLDING CELL

San Diego (AP) - The DEA Apologizes to San Diego College Student for 
Leaving Him Without Food and Water for 4 Days

SAN DIEGO - The Drug Enforcement Administration issued an apology 
Wednesday to a California student who was picked up during a drug 
raid and somehow left in a holding cell for four days without food, 
water or access to a toilet.

DEA San Diego Acting Special Agent-in-Charge William Sherman said in 
a statement that he was troubled by the treatment of Daniel Chong and 
extended his "deepest apologies" to him.

The agency is investigating how its agents forgot about Chong.

Chong, 23, was never arrested, was not going to be charged with a 
crime and should have been released, said a law enforcement official 
who was briefed on the DEA case and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The engineering student at the University of California, San Diego 
told the Union-Tribune that he drank his own urine to survive and bit 
into his glasses to break them and tried to use a shard to scratch 
"Sorry Mom" into his arm.

His lawyer, Eugene Iredale, said Chong went to his friend's house 
April 20 to get high and fell asleep. Agents stormed in at 9 a.m. the 
next day and swept him up as one of nine suspects in a raid that 
netted 18,000 Ecstasy pills, other drugs and weapons.

He was questioned for four hours and then told he would be released, 
Iredale said. Chong was handcuffed and placed back in a holding cell.

He remained in the 5-by-10-foot cell from April 21 to April 25, when 
he was taken out on a gurney by paramedics.

"He couldn't fully stretch out his arms," Iredale said. "There was no 
restroom facilities, no water, no food."

After three days, he began to hallucinate, Iredale said. The pain was 
so intense that he bit into his glasses and swallowed a shard, 
cutting his esophagus. He took the broken bits and started carving 
into his arm but stopped after the "S," Iredale said. His lawyer 
believes he was thinking of killing himself.

During the final two days, the lights went out and he spent the time 
in darkness.

Chong also ingested a white powder DEA agents said was left in the 
cell and later identified as methamphetamine.

When he was found April 25, paramedics took him to a hospital, where 
he was treated for cramps, dehydration, a perforated esophagus and 
kidney failure, his lawyer said. He spent three days in intensive 
care and five total at the hospital before leaving Sunday.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom