A Monroe County woman who was stopped for darkly tinted windows on New Years Eve in 2016 spent nearly four months in jail, after a roadside drug test falsely labeled a bag of cotton candy as methamphetamine.
Now, she’s suing the county, the deputies that arrested her and the company that manufactured the roadside drug test.
Dasha Fincher told WMAZ that the officer pulled her over, searched her car and found a large open plastic bag of cotton candy. When she explained the blue substance was candy – Fincher said the officers didn’t believe her.
“They said the results from the roadside kit came back as positive,” Fincher said.
Monroe deputies Cody Maples and Allen Henderson arrested Fincher. She was charged with meth trafficking, possession and intent to distribute.
A judge set her bond at $1 million, according to the lawsuit. Fincher remained in jail for nearly four months, because she couldn’t pay the cash bond.
In March 2017, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations lab tests came in – stating the substance in the bag was not an illegal drug and there were “no controlled substances confirmed in the sample.” All charges against Fincher were dropped in April 2017.
Police also determined the dark-tinted windows were legal.
Fincher’s lawsuit argues that the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office was reckless and negligent and violated her civil rights.
“I want Monroe County to pay for what they did to me,” Fincher said. She said she missed out on major life events while she was locked away.
“My daughter had a miscarriage. I wasn’t there for that. My twin grandsons were born. I missed that,” she said.
Fincher’s suit also states that the roadside test, manufactured by a company in North Carolina called Sirchie Acquisitions, has a history of false positive tests.
According to the lawsuit, the roadside test, called Nark II, sells online for $20 for a box of 10. There is a disclaimer on the company's website warning that the test detects compounds that can be found in both legal and illegal products, and that results are merely presumptive and not proof of anything.
Sirchie Acquisitions has not responded to requests for comment.
This sort of issue is not unprecedented.
An 11Alive investigation in January 2018 found that over 250 officers across Georgia are trained as "drug recognition experts," but some drivers have been accused of being stoned behind the wheel -- even though their drug tests come back as clean.
One woman was arrested after driving home from work in Cobb County, after an officer accused her of smoking marijuana. She spent the night in jail and had her alcohol service permit revoked; after four months, the prosecutor dropped all charges against her because her blood test came back completely clean.
Another Cobb County woman also spent most of 2016 fighting a DUI charge after officers accused her of smoking marijuana -- even though her drug test came back negative as well.
In Florida, a man was arrested after police saw white glazed crumbs on the floorboard of his car – which turned out to be from a Krispy Kreme doughnut, according to NPR. The man spent 10 hours in jail before he was released on bail.
A 2016 investigation by ProPublica and the New York Times found that thousands of people are sent to jail every year based on false positive results from field drug testing kits.
Monroe deputies Maples and Henderson were not trained in identifying street drugs or in performing the Nark II test, the lawsuit stated.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office referred WMAZ to the Monroe County attorney, who could not be reached for comment. Fincher’s lawyer said the defendants have 30 days to respond to the lawsuit after it is served.
Fincher said the experience made her a bit paranoid, but she’s happy to be back with her family.
“I never want to go through this again,” she said.