Pubdate: Tue, 17 Nov 2015
Source: Morning Call (Allentown, PA)
Copyright: 2015 The Morning Call Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/DReo9M8z
Website: http://www.mcall.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/275
Author: Laurie Mason Schroeder

MAN JAILED AFTER COPS MISTOOK SOAP FOR COCAINE ON I-78 FILES SUIT

A New York man who spent 29 days in jail after police mistook the 
homemade soap in the trunk of his rental car for cocaine has worked 
himself into enough of a lather to file a federal civil rights lawsuit.

Alexander J. Bernstein, 32, alleges that troopers from the state 
police barracks at Fogelsville conspired to fabricate evidence that 
he was transporting drugs, and knew that the field test they used on 
the soap wasn't reliable.

He says in the suit that he was forced to pay thousands of dollars in 
court costs and legal fees, and missed Thanksgiving with his 
17-month-old son before the charges were dropped. Bernstein, who is 
seeking a jury trial and damages in excess of $150,000, also 
complains in the suit that investigators have refused to admit that 
they were wrong.

"[Bernstein] did not so much as receive an apology from the 
defendants," his attorney, Joshua Karoly, wrote in the suit.

Bernstein was a passenger in a Mercedes-Benz that was pulled over on 
Interstate 78 in South Whitehall Township on Nov. 13, 2013.

According to a 2013 criminal complaint, a state trooper stopped the 
Mercedes' driver, 26-year-old Annadel Cruz of New York, on westbound 
I-78 near the Cedar Crest Boulevard exit because she was approaching 
60 mph in a 55 mph zone and was riding a traffic line for about a half-mile.

When questioned, Cruz told the trooper the car was a rental and they 
were driving from New York to Florida. The trooper told her he 
smelled marijuana and she said she had smoked earlier in the day, but 
not in the car. She gave police permission to search the car.

According to the police report, Bernstein told police he had a bag in 
the trunk and gave police permission to search it. In the bag, the 
trooper found two brick-size packages, which were covered in clear 
plastic wrap and red tape.

Cruz told police the packages contained soap she had made for her 
sister in Florida, but a field test showed that the substance was 
cocaine. The packages weighed 5.2 pounds. Police said they also found 
a small amount of marijuana in Cruz's bra.

The couple were charged with possession with intent to deliver 
cocaine, possession of cocaine, conspiracy and possession of drug 
paraphernalia. Cruz also was charged with possession of a small 
amount of marijuana, disregarding traffic lanes and speeding.

In the lawsuit, Bernstein claims he pretended to be asleep at the 
barracks after he was arrested, and overhead troopers discussing the 
field test. One trooper said the package tested negative for cocaine, 
the suit states.

"Well ... make it positive," another trooper replied, according to the suit.

Bernstein was sent to prison under $500,000 bail. He spent 29 days 
behind bars before his bail was reduced to $25,0000 and he was 
released after paying $32,523 in bail and court costs. Two days 
later, lab tests proved the suspected cocaine was soap, and the 
charges were dropped.

"All the laboratory tests performed on the substance which the 
operator claimed, from the beginning, constituted nothing more than 
soap, confirmed that the package contained no cocaine, and no other 
drugs or controlled substances, but merely soap," the suit states.

In conducting a field test, a sample of the suspected substance is 
mixed with a liquid, causing a reaction and change in color that will 
indicate if it is an illegal drug.

Suspected substances are then sent to a lab for more in-depth testing 
that can take weeks.

Field tests have come under fire in numerous states after the tests 
mistook male enhancement products for methamphetamine and motor oil 
for heroin. In Travis County, Texas in 2012, District Attorney 
Rosemary Lehmberg stopped accepting plea bargains on low-level 
possession cases based on field tests after a string of 12 
false-positive drug tests.

Named in the Bernstein's lawsuit are Capt. Brian S. Tobin; commander 
of Troop M in Fogelsville; troopers Nicholas Goldsmith and Justin 
Julius; former state police commissioner Colonel Francis J. Noonan; 
state police officials Lt. Colonel Timothy J. Mercer, Major Robert 
Evanchick and Major Joseph L. Reed; and Safariland, LLC, the Florida 
company that manufactured the field test.

Tobin, the local state police spokesman, declined to comment on the 
suit. Safariland officials did not return a phone message seeking comment.

Karoly declined to comment on the lawsuit Friday, but in 2013 he 
accused the troopers of profiling.

"I think it is a nice car with out-of-state plates and a Hispanic 
female behind the wheel" that prompted the traffic stop, Karoly said. 
"If it was me driving that car, this wouldn't have happened."

The charges against Cruz were also dropped. Her attorney, Robert 
Goldman, said Friday that she has not filed a lawsuit.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom