The Associated Press | By ELLIOT SPAGAT and ALICIA A. CALDWELL Posted: 07/30/2013 3:56 pm EDT | Updated: 07/31/2013 11:58 am EDT
SAN DIEGO -- A 25-year old college student has reached a $4.1 million settlement with the federal government after he was abandoned in a windowless Drug Enforcement Administration cell for more than four days without food or water, his attorneys said Tuesday.
The DEA introduced national detention standards as a result of the ordeal involving Daniel Chong, including daily inspections and a requirement for cameras in cells, said Julia Yoo, one of his lawyers.
Chong said he drank his own urine to stay alive, hallucinated that agents were trying to poison him with gases through the vents, and tried to carve a farewell message to his mother in his arm.
It remained unclear how the situation occurred, and no one has been disciplined, said Eugene Iredale, another attorney for Chong. The Justice Department's inspector general is investigating.
"It sounded like it was an accident – a really, really bad, horrible accident," Chong said.
Chong was taken into custody during a drug raid and placed in the cell in April 2012 by a San Diego police officer authorized to perform DEA work on a task force. The officer told Chong he would not be charged and said, "Hang tight, we'll come get you in a minute," Iredale said.
The door to the 5-by-10-foot cell did not reopen for 4 1/2 days.
Justice Department spokeswoman Allison Price confirmed the settlement was reached for $4.1 million but declined to answer other questions. The DEA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Detective Gary Hassen, a San Diego police spokesman, referred questions to the DEA.
Since attorney fees are capped at 20 percent of damages and the settlement payment is tax-free, Chong will collect at least $3.2 million, Iredale said. Chong, now an economics student at the University of California, San Diego, said he planned to buy his parents a house.
Chong was a 23-year-old engineering student when he was at a friend's house where the DEA found 18,000 ecstasy pills, other drugs and weapons. Iredale acknowledged Chong was there to consume marijuana.
Chong and eight other people were taken into custody, but authorities decided against pursuing charges against him after questioning.
Chong said he began to hallucinate on the third day in the cell. He urinated on a metal bench so he could have something to drink. He also stacked a blanket, his pants and shoes on a bench and tried to reach an overhead fire sprinkler, futilely swatting at it with his cuffed hands to set it off.
Chong said he accepted the possibility of death. He bit into his eyeglasses to break them and used a shard of glass to try to carve "Sorry Mom" onto his arm so he could leave something for her. He only managed to finish an "S."
Chong said he slid a shoelace under the door and screamed to get attention before five or six people found him covered in his feces in the cell at the DEA's San Diego headquarters.
"All I wanted was my sanity," Chong said. "I wasn't making any sense."
Chong was hospitalized for five days for dehydration, kidney failure, cramps and a perforated esophagus. He lost 15 pounds.
The DEA issued a rare public apology at the time.
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, the Judiciary Committee's ranking Republican, on Tuesday renewed his call for the DEA to explain the incident.
"How did this incident happen? Has there been any disciplinary action against the responsible employees? And has the agency taken major steps to prevent an incident like this from happening again?" he said.
___
Caldwell reported from Washington.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Friday, July 26, 2013
Affidavit: Police went to wrong house because of poor lighting
Posted Wednesday, Jul. 24, 2013
By Lee Williams
leewilliams@star-telegram.com
FORT WORTH — --Police officers responding to a burglary alarm call went to the wrong house because of poor lighting and fatally shot an armed homeowner, according to a search warrant affidavit released Wednesday.
Officers B.B. Hanlon and R.P. Hoeppner were dispatched to 409 Havenwood Lane at 12:51 a.m. May 28. But after arriving at 12:58 a.m., they “inadvertently began searching” across the street at 404 Havenwood, where 72-year-old Jerry Waller lived.
Officers “approached the west side of the house near the garage that is located on the southwest corner of the home with the knowledge that there was a possible burglary in progress. There is no lighting around the home and the officers had only the use of their flashlights,” according to the affidavit.
As the officers approached, they encountered Waller, who “was armed with a handgun standing near the corner of the home,” according to the affidavit.
The officers identified themselves and ordered Waller to drop the gun, but he pointed it at the officers, prompting Hoeppner to shoot Waller, according to the affidavit.
Waller was pronounced dead at 1:26 a.m. inside the garage.
Waller’s relatives have previously disputed the officers’ account, accusing police of “misrepresenting details of the incident.”
“My father never stepped outside of his garage,” son Chris Waller told the Star-Telegram the day after the shooting. “He was shot multiple times in the chest only a few steps away from the doorway to his kitchen.”
Chris Waller declined to comment Wednesday, saying he had not seen the affidavit.
Former Councilwoman Becky Haskin, who lives two doors down, said the entire neighborhood has been waiting for an answer from the city about what happened that night.
She said the question of why officers fired six times on a homeowner in his own garage remains unanswered.
“His wife said she heard yelling and then gunshots immediately following,” Haskin said. “I think they [the officers] got startled.”
Haskin said the Police Department’s silence likely involves fear of a lawsuit.
“I think the Police Department is just waiting to see how much they’re going to get hit by the Wallers’ attorneys,” Haskin said.
Police are investigating the shooting.
Police Chief Jeff Halstead said Wednesday that the two officers have returned to full-time duty, but he declined to comment further.
An autopsy on Waller has also been completed.
On Wednesday, however, the Tarrant County district attorney’s office sent a letter to the attorney general’s office, contending that the autopsy report should not be released to the Star-Telegram because of the pending investigation.
Staff writers Bill Hanna and Deanna Boyd contributed to this report, which includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.
Lee Williams, 817-390-7840 Twitter: @leewatson
By Lee Williams
leewilliams@star-telegram.com
FORT WORTH — --Police officers responding to a burglary alarm call went to the wrong house because of poor lighting and fatally shot an armed homeowner, according to a search warrant affidavit released Wednesday.
Officers B.B. Hanlon and R.P. Hoeppner were dispatched to 409 Havenwood Lane at 12:51 a.m. May 28. But after arriving at 12:58 a.m., they “inadvertently began searching” across the street at 404 Havenwood, where 72-year-old Jerry Waller lived.
Officers “approached the west side of the house near the garage that is located on the southwest corner of the home with the knowledge that there was a possible burglary in progress. There is no lighting around the home and the officers had only the use of their flashlights,” according to the affidavit.
As the officers approached, they encountered Waller, who “was armed with a handgun standing near the corner of the home,” according to the affidavit.
The officers identified themselves and ordered Waller to drop the gun, but he pointed it at the officers, prompting Hoeppner to shoot Waller, according to the affidavit.
Waller was pronounced dead at 1:26 a.m. inside the garage.
Waller’s relatives have previously disputed the officers’ account, accusing police of “misrepresenting details of the incident.”
“My father never stepped outside of his garage,” son Chris Waller told the Star-Telegram the day after the shooting. “He was shot multiple times in the chest only a few steps away from the doorway to his kitchen.”
Chris Waller declined to comment Wednesday, saying he had not seen the affidavit.
Former Councilwoman Becky Haskin, who lives two doors down, said the entire neighborhood has been waiting for an answer from the city about what happened that night.
She said the question of why officers fired six times on a homeowner in his own garage remains unanswered.
“His wife said she heard yelling and then gunshots immediately following,” Haskin said. “I think they [the officers] got startled.”
Haskin said the Police Department’s silence likely involves fear of a lawsuit.
“I think the Police Department is just waiting to see how much they’re going to get hit by the Wallers’ attorneys,” Haskin said.
Police are investigating the shooting.
Police Chief Jeff Halstead said Wednesday that the two officers have returned to full-time duty, but he declined to comment further.
An autopsy on Waller has also been completed.
On Wednesday, however, the Tarrant County district attorney’s office sent a letter to the attorney general’s office, contending that the autopsy report should not be released to the Star-Telegram because of the pending investigation.
Staff writers Bill Hanna and Deanna Boyd contributed to this report, which includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.
Lee Williams, 817-390-7840 Twitter: @leewatson
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Lyons: Police raid felt like home invasion
By Tom Lyons
Published: Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 9:50 p.m.
After leaving her operating room scrub nurse duties at Sarasota's Doctors Hospital on Wednesday, Louise Goldsberry went to her Hidden Lake Village apartment.
Her boyfriend came over, and after dinner — about 8 p.m. — Goldsberry went to her kitchen sink to wash some dishes.
That's when her boyfriend, Craig Dorris — a manager for a security alarm company — heard her scream and saw her drop to the floor.
Goldsberry, 59, said she had looked up from the sink to see a man “wearing a hunting vest.”
He was aiming a gun at her face, with a red light pinpointing her.
“I screamed and screamed,” she said.
But she also scrambled across the floor to her bedroom and grabbed her gun, a five-shot .38-caliber revolver. Goldsberry has a concealed weapons permit and says the gun has made her feel safer living alone. But she felt anything but safe when she heard a man yelling to open the door.
He was claiming to be a police officer, but the man she had seen looked to her more like an armed thug. Her boyfriend, Dorris, was calmer, and yelled back that he wanted to see some ID.
But the man just demanded they open the door. The actual words, the couple say, were, “We're the f------ police; open the f------ door.”
Dorris said he moved away from the door, afraid bullets were about to rip through.
Goldsberry was terrified but thinking it just might really be the police. Except, she says she wondered, would police talk that way? She had never been arrested or even come close. She couldn't imagine why police would be there or want to come in. But even if they did, why would they act like that at her apartment? It didn't seem right.
Then, to the couple's horror — and as Goldsberry huddled in the hallway with gun in hand — the front door they had thought was locked pushed open. A man edged around the corner and pointed a gun and a fiercely bright light at them, and yelled even more.
“Drop the f------ gun or I'll f------ shoot you,” he shouted, then said it again and again, Goldsberry and Dorris say.
Goldsberry was screaming, but Dorris was the calmer one. He could see the armed man was holding a tactical shield for protection. Some zealous gun thug could have one, but, though it was hard to see much, Dorris decided this guy looked well enough equipped to be a cop on a serious felony raid.
Dorris remained frozen and kept his hands in sight. He saw more people outside, and decided it probably was a police action. But he started fearing that in this case that was not much better than a home invasion. With his freaked out girlfriend and the macho commando-style intruder aiming at each other and shouting, someone could be dead at any second.
Dorris told the man at the door he would come outside and talk to them. When he got permission and walked out slowly, hands up, he was amazed at what he saw as he was quickly grabbed and handcuffed.
The cop at the door, and some others, had words on their clothes identifying them as federal marshals, but there were numerous Sarasota Police officers, too, and others he couldn't identify, though his security company job involves work with police.
More than two dozen officers, maybe more than 30, were bustling around, many in tactical jackets.
It was like nothing he had ever seen.
“It was a Rambo movie,” Dorris said.
Soon Dorris yelled to his girlfriend that it was OK to drop the gun and come out, but Goldsberry was too afraid.
She had been yelling, “I'm an American citizen” and saying they had no right to do this. Their standoff continued several more minutes.
Then she set the gun down and walked out, shaking and crying, and also was quickly handcuffed.
They remained cuffed for close to half an hour as the apartment was searched for a wanted man who wasn't there, never had been, and who was totally unknown to them.
They were shown his picture.
Then they were released, the police left, and that was that.
The officer's story
Matt Wiggins was the man at the door.
He's with the U.S. Marshal's fugitive division.
I asked him what happened. He said they had a tip that a child-rape suspect was at the complex.
That suspect, Kyle Riley, was arrested several hours later in another part of Sarasota.
The tip was never about Goldsberry's apartment, specifically, Wiggins acknowledged. It was about the complex.
But when the people in Goldsberry's apartment didn't open up, that told Wiggins he had probably found the right door. No one at other units had reacted that way, he said.
Maybe none of them had a gun pointed at them through the kitchen window, I suggested. But Wiggins didn't think that was much excuse for the woman's behavior. He said he acted with restraint and didn't like having that gun aimed at him.
“I went above and beyond,” Wiggins said. “I have to go home at night.”
Goldsberry was at home, I said. She had a gun pointed at her, too, and she wasn't wearing body armor and behind a shield. She had no reason to expect police or think police would ever aim into her kitchen and cuss at her through her door to get in. It seemed crazy. She was panicked.
“We were clearly the police,” Wiggins insisted. “She can't say she didn't know.”
She does say so, actually.
“I couldn't see them. They had a big light in my eyes,” Goldsberry said the next day. And that man she saw aiming a gun through her window had nothing visible that said “cop,” in her mind.
“I was thinking, is this some kind of nutjob?”
No, just a well-trained officer who knows how to go after a man assumed to be a dangerous felon, but isn't so good at understanding a frightened woman confronted with an aggressive armed stranger coming after her in her own home.
“I feel bad for her,” Wiggins conceded, finally. “But at the same time, I had to reasonably believe the bad guy was in her house based on what they were doing.”
Goldsberry wasn't arrested or shot despite pointing a gun at a cop, so Wiggins said, “She sure shouldn't be going to the press.”
Tom Lyons can be contacted at tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com or (941) 361-4964.
Copyright © 2013 HeraldTribune.com — All rights reserved. Restricted use only.
Published: Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 9:50 p.m.
After leaving her operating room scrub nurse duties at Sarasota's Doctors Hospital on Wednesday, Louise Goldsberry went to her Hidden Lake Village apartment.
Her boyfriend came over, and after dinner — about 8 p.m. — Goldsberry went to her kitchen sink to wash some dishes.
That's when her boyfriend, Craig Dorris — a manager for a security alarm company — heard her scream and saw her drop to the floor.
Goldsberry, 59, said she had looked up from the sink to see a man “wearing a hunting vest.”
He was aiming a gun at her face, with a red light pinpointing her.
“I screamed and screamed,” she said.
But she also scrambled across the floor to her bedroom and grabbed her gun, a five-shot .38-caliber revolver. Goldsberry has a concealed weapons permit and says the gun has made her feel safer living alone. But she felt anything but safe when she heard a man yelling to open the door.
He was claiming to be a police officer, but the man she had seen looked to her more like an armed thug. Her boyfriend, Dorris, was calmer, and yelled back that he wanted to see some ID.
But the man just demanded they open the door. The actual words, the couple say, were, “We're the f------ police; open the f------ door.”
Dorris said he moved away from the door, afraid bullets were about to rip through.
Goldsberry was terrified but thinking it just might really be the police. Except, she says she wondered, would police talk that way? She had never been arrested or even come close. She couldn't imagine why police would be there or want to come in. But even if they did, why would they act like that at her apartment? It didn't seem right.
Then, to the couple's horror — and as Goldsberry huddled in the hallway with gun in hand — the front door they had thought was locked pushed open. A man edged around the corner and pointed a gun and a fiercely bright light at them, and yelled even more.
“Drop the f------ gun or I'll f------ shoot you,” he shouted, then said it again and again, Goldsberry and Dorris say.
Goldsberry was screaming, but Dorris was the calmer one. He could see the armed man was holding a tactical shield for protection. Some zealous gun thug could have one, but, though it was hard to see much, Dorris decided this guy looked well enough equipped to be a cop on a serious felony raid.
Dorris remained frozen and kept his hands in sight. He saw more people outside, and decided it probably was a police action. But he started fearing that in this case that was not much better than a home invasion. With his freaked out girlfriend and the macho commando-style intruder aiming at each other and shouting, someone could be dead at any second.
Dorris told the man at the door he would come outside and talk to them. When he got permission and walked out slowly, hands up, he was amazed at what he saw as he was quickly grabbed and handcuffed.
The cop at the door, and some others, had words on their clothes identifying them as federal marshals, but there were numerous Sarasota Police officers, too, and others he couldn't identify, though his security company job involves work with police.
More than two dozen officers, maybe more than 30, were bustling around, many in tactical jackets.
It was like nothing he had ever seen.
“It was a Rambo movie,” Dorris said.
Soon Dorris yelled to his girlfriend that it was OK to drop the gun and come out, but Goldsberry was too afraid.
She had been yelling, “I'm an American citizen” and saying they had no right to do this. Their standoff continued several more minutes.
Then she set the gun down and walked out, shaking and crying, and also was quickly handcuffed.
They remained cuffed for close to half an hour as the apartment was searched for a wanted man who wasn't there, never had been, and who was totally unknown to them.
They were shown his picture.
Then they were released, the police left, and that was that.
The officer's story
Matt Wiggins was the man at the door.
He's with the U.S. Marshal's fugitive division.
I asked him what happened. He said they had a tip that a child-rape suspect was at the complex.
That suspect, Kyle Riley, was arrested several hours later in another part of Sarasota.
The tip was never about Goldsberry's apartment, specifically, Wiggins acknowledged. It was about the complex.
But when the people in Goldsberry's apartment didn't open up, that told Wiggins he had probably found the right door. No one at other units had reacted that way, he said.
Maybe none of them had a gun pointed at them through the kitchen window, I suggested. But Wiggins didn't think that was much excuse for the woman's behavior. He said he acted with restraint and didn't like having that gun aimed at him.
“I went above and beyond,” Wiggins said. “I have to go home at night.”
Goldsberry was at home, I said. She had a gun pointed at her, too, and she wasn't wearing body armor and behind a shield. She had no reason to expect police or think police would ever aim into her kitchen and cuss at her through her door to get in. It seemed crazy. She was panicked.
“We were clearly the police,” Wiggins insisted. “She can't say she didn't know.”
She does say so, actually.
“I couldn't see them. They had a big light in my eyes,” Goldsberry said the next day. And that man she saw aiming a gun through her window had nothing visible that said “cop,” in her mind.
“I was thinking, is this some kind of nutjob?”
No, just a well-trained officer who knows how to go after a man assumed to be a dangerous felon, but isn't so good at understanding a frightened woman confronted with an aggressive armed stranger coming after her in her own home.
“I feel bad for her,” Wiggins conceded, finally. “But at the same time, I had to reasonably believe the bad guy was in her house based on what they were doing.”
Goldsberry wasn't arrested or shot despite pointing a gun at a cop, so Wiggins said, “She sure shouldn't be going to the press.”
Tom Lyons can be contacted at tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com or (941) 361-4964.
Copyright © 2013 HeraldTribune.com — All rights reserved. Restricted use only.
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