A wrongly-arrested California collegian plans to sue the Drug Enforcement Administration for $20 million after spending five days without food and water inside a federal holding cell. Click below to find out more.
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Lawyers for 23-year-old Daniel Chong filed a five-page notice of claim Wednesday, the first step in suing the DEA for allegedly torturing their client in violation of U.S. and international law.
The student, picked up in a drug sweep last month but never charged, said he lost 15 pounds during his ordeal inside a windowless cell — and spent five days recovering at a California hospital.
DEA agents forgot the young man was in their custody, with business as usual continuing in the office as Chong screamed for help and started hallucinating.
William R. Sherman, the head of the DEA’s San Diego office, issued a statement saying he was “deeply disturbed†by the story and extending his “deepest apologies†to Chong.
But Chong said he has not head personally from anyone with the agency since he was thrown in jail on April 21. DEA agents finally freed Chong on April 25 — after he drank his own urine to combat dehydration and started seeing visions of Japanese animation characters.
DEA protocol requires a nightly check of all holding cells, but Chong said no one ever responded to his screams and pounding on the cell door.
