Post by ck4829 on Dec 17, 2016 15:00:57 GMT
While looking up more information about what is happening in Multnomah County, I came across this...
Faulty $2 Drug Test Lands Military Couple in Jail for 2 Months
For two-and-a-half months, Gale Griffin and her husband, Wendell Harvey, a military couple with top security clearance, sat in an Arkansas jail after bags of baking soda tested positive for cocaine because of a faulty drug-test kit used by police.
“I felt cut off from reality; it felt very strange—someplace that doesn’t feel like America to me,” Harvey told KUTV.
Griffin and Harvey are from Draper, Utah. They work as military truck drivers who transport explosives. In May they were driving through Fort Chaffee, Ark., when police stopped them. The couple weren’t the least bit concerned during the stop, even when the officer pulled three Baggies filled with a white powdery substance from the truck.
“I told them, ‘That’s baking soda,’” Harvey said.
The police tested the substance.
“We tested it three different times,” Chuck Bowen, with the Fort Chaffee police, told the news station. “We got a positive conclusion each time we tested.”
Police told the couple they were in serious trouble.
“He said, ‘You have over $3,000 in cocaine,’” Griffin said.
“I told him, ‘I’ve never had two nickels to rub together; are you crazy?’” Griffin said. “Then [the police officer] said, ‘I’ve never had two nickels to rub together either, but now I’m the owner of your truck.’”
The police took their truck and tossed the couple in jail. Griffin and Harvey were unable to pay the $10,000 bail, so they sat in jail for over two months.
“It was just crawling with bugs—it was unbelievably cold, blasting, blasting cold air,” Griffin told KUTV.
She was allowed out of her cell for only one hour each day.
“For the first three or four weeks, I just shivered. I didn’t have any socks,” Griffin said.
Thankfully, the Arkansas Public Defender’s Office insisted that the substance be tested again, and all of the tests came back negative, indicating that the substance was not cocaine.
Turns out that the Scott Reagent Field Test, used in the couple’s case, and used by most police departments throughout the country to test for cocaine, has a history of false positives.
“They are not infallible; they are subject to misreading,” Greg Parrish, with the Arkansas Public Defender’s Office, told KUTV.
For example, according to KUTV, field tests conducted 2010-2013 by Las Vegas authorities found that 33 percent of Scott Reagent Field Tests were false positives.
www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/11/faulty-2-drug-tests-lands-military-couple-in-jail-for-2-months/
Who tests the tests, and who tests the testers?
Faulty $2 Drug Test Lands Military Couple in Jail for 2 Months
For two-and-a-half months, Gale Griffin and her husband, Wendell Harvey, a military couple with top security clearance, sat in an Arkansas jail after bags of baking soda tested positive for cocaine because of a faulty drug-test kit used by police.
“I felt cut off from reality; it felt very strange—someplace that doesn’t feel like America to me,” Harvey told KUTV.
Griffin and Harvey are from Draper, Utah. They work as military truck drivers who transport explosives. In May they were driving through Fort Chaffee, Ark., when police stopped them. The couple weren’t the least bit concerned during the stop, even when the officer pulled three Baggies filled with a white powdery substance from the truck.
“I told them, ‘That’s baking soda,’” Harvey said.
The police tested the substance.
“We tested it three different times,” Chuck Bowen, with the Fort Chaffee police, told the news station. “We got a positive conclusion each time we tested.”
Police told the couple they were in serious trouble.
“He said, ‘You have over $3,000 in cocaine,’” Griffin said.
“I told him, ‘I’ve never had two nickels to rub together; are you crazy?’” Griffin said. “Then [the police officer] said, ‘I’ve never had two nickels to rub together either, but now I’m the owner of your truck.’”
The police took their truck and tossed the couple in jail. Griffin and Harvey were unable to pay the $10,000 bail, so they sat in jail for over two months.
“It was just crawling with bugs—it was unbelievably cold, blasting, blasting cold air,” Griffin told KUTV.
She was allowed out of her cell for only one hour each day.
“For the first three or four weeks, I just shivered. I didn’t have any socks,” Griffin said.
Thankfully, the Arkansas Public Defender’s Office insisted that the substance be tested again, and all of the tests came back negative, indicating that the substance was not cocaine.
Turns out that the Scott Reagent Field Test, used in the couple’s case, and used by most police departments throughout the country to test for cocaine, has a history of false positives.
“They are not infallible; they are subject to misreading,” Greg Parrish, with the Arkansas Public Defender’s Office, told KUTV.
For example, according to KUTV, field tests conducted 2010-2013 by Las Vegas authorities found that 33 percent of Scott Reagent Field Tests were false positives.
www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/11/faulty-2-drug-tests-lands-military-couple-in-jail-for-2-months/
Who tests the tests, and who tests the testers?
