Cops mistake candy floss for meth and jails Georgia woman for 3 months

Dasha Fincher 41, from Georgia, was held in custody and spent three months in jail after her bag of candy floss was mistaken for methamphetamine owing to a defective drug test and because she could not afford her $1m (£780, 000) bond.

Ms Fincher is suing Monroe County, the police and drug test company over the alleged mix-up during a traffic stop and search on New Year’s Eve 2016.

She was arrested and charged with meth trafficking and possession of meth with intent to distribute according to a lawsuit.

 

The court documents say she was improperly detained from n31nDecember 2016 until 4 April, when her charges of drug possession and trafficking were suddenly dropped.

A state crime laboratory had already tested the bag of light blue candy floss known as cotton candy in the US and determined on 22 March 2017, it contained no drugs.

Ms Fincher says she missed important life events due to the unlawful jailing including the birth of her twin grandsons and the chance to care for her daughter after a miscarriage. The arrest remains on her record despite her innocence, according to the lawsuit.

 

Ms Fincher is seeking damages for negligence and wrongful arrest as determined by a jury from Monroe county, the two officers who arrested her and the test manufacturer Sirchie.

County officials and Sirchie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A 2016 ProPublica investigation found that cheap roadside drug tests “routinely produce false positives” that result in tens of thousands of Americans being wrongfully jailed.

According to a list compiled by the Washington Post, roadside tests have labelled cookies, mints, deodorants and tea among other harmless materials as drugs.