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A University of California student
spent five days forgotten in a windowless jail cell without food and water, and
was forced to drink his own urine to survive. Now, the US government is
voluntarily paying the young man $4.1 million to avoid a lawsuit.
Daniel Chong, a 25-year-old economics
student at UC San Diego, was one of nine people taken into custody during a
drug raid in April 2012. Chong was at a friend’s house when officers discovered
18,000 ecstasy pills at the home. He was locked in a Drug Enforcement
Administration jail cell, but after questioning the young man, a police officer
authorized to perform DEA work told the student that he would not be charged.
“Hang tight, we’ll come get you in a
minute,” the officer told Chong, according to Attorney Eugene Iredale.
But the officer never returned, and
Chong spent five dismal days in the 5 by 10 ft. windowless cell. The student,
who was still handcuffed, had no food, water, or access to a toilet, and barely
survived his living nightmare.
“It sounded like it was an accident – a
really, really bad, horrible accident,” he said at a news conference this
week, in which he described how close he came to death.
After three days in the cell, the
famished young man said he began to hallucinate. He imagined that DEA agents
were trying to poison him with gases that entered his cell through the vents.
Deprived of food and water, he started to accept the idea that he would not
survive. He bit into his glasses to break them, and used a shard of glass to
carve a farewell message to his mom on his arm.
“Sorry Mom,” he tried to
carve into his bleeding skin, but he only managed to write the “S”.
In a last-ditch attempt to stay alive,
he urinated on the metal bench in his cell and then drank his own urine.
To try to capture the attention of the
guards, he then stacked a blanket and his clothing on the bench to try to reach
an overhead fire sprinkler. Chong desperately tried to set it off by hitting it
with his handcuffed hands. He failed.
On the fifth day, Chong screamed at the
top of his voice, trying to get the attention of the agents outside.
“I didn’t just sit there quietly. I was
kicking the door yelling,” he said.
He slid a shoelace under the door,
hoping to garner the attention of the guards. He succeeded, and“five or six
people” came to the cell and found him starved and lying in his own
feces. Chong had lost 15 pounds, and was immediately hospitalized for five
days.
“I had to do what I had to do to
survive,” Chong told NBC7 after the incident. “It’s so
inconceivable. You keep doubting they would forget you.”
The young student, who was 23 at the
time, suffered from dehydration, kidney failure, a perforated esophagus, and
cramps, and the DEA issued a public apology last May. The head of the DEA said
he was “deeply troubled” by the incident.
After the incident, the agency
established new policies at its detention facilities, including mandatory daily
cell checks. The agency also installed cameras inside its holding cells.
But to avoid a lawsuit in the case of
the 25-year-old economics student, the US government this week agreed to pay
Chong a $4.1 million settlement as compensation for the suffering he endured.
“You break it down into the pain and
suffering and how horrible this could have been for the family. They didn’t
know where he was, all the anguish the family went through and the young man
went through,”Defense Attorney Gretchen Von Helms told NBC7. Since the incident
occurred a year ago, Chong has been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder and is receiving treatment from a doctor who normally sees war
veterans.
Iredale told the station that the
doctor has “never seen stress of trauma as significant” as
Chong suffers from.
Twenty percent of the settlement will
cover the cost of attorney fees, but Chong will receive at least $3.2 million,
which he says he will use to buy his parents a house.
Meanwhile, US. Sen. Charles Grassley is
demanding that the DEA explain how their near-fatal mistake occurred in the
first place.
“How did this 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 told AP.
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