In what can only be described as a nightmare string of failures by authorities, a Georgia woman spent three months in jail because police initially thought cotton candy inside her car was methamphetamine – except that it wasn’t.
Two Munroe County, Georgia Sheriff’s deputies allege the reason they stopped a vehicle, that a woman named Dasha Fincher was a passenger in, was because they believed the tinting on the car’s windows was too dark, even though they clarified at the scene the vehicle wasn’t in violation.
Next, however, the officers asked the driver, Fincher’s boyfriend, if they could search the vehicle. The search turned up “a large, open clear plastic bag which contained a light blue substance, spherical in shape,” on the floorboard of the vehicle.
Both Fincher and the driver tried to explain to the Sheriff’s deputies that the bag contained cotton candy.
Despite identifying the contents of the bag as cotton candy, the deputies decided to use a field test kit to determine if the substance inside the bag was illegal drugs. They grabbed a 1.5-ounce wad of the fluffy, blue cotton candy for testing, and unbelievably, the test indicated that the substance was methamphetamine.
Despite repeated pleas by Fincher and the driver that the substance was only cotton candy, officers arrested both for possession and trafficking of methamphetamine.
Due to the charges of drug trafficking, the judge set Fincher’s bail at $1 million. Because Fincher wasn’t able to raise the huge amount necessary to post bond, it left her sitting in jail for three months, while authorities forwarded the suspected substance to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) for further forensic testing.
Just shy of three months later, the GBI issued a report that said “no controlled substances confirmed.”
One would think Fincher would be immediately released, but that didn’t happen. She remained in jail almost two additional weeks until authorities finally let her go.
Fincher has filed a lawsuit against Munroe County and three officers for wrongful imprisonment and violation of civil rights, as well as, Sirchie Acquisition Company, the maker of the field test kit that produced the mistaken test results that led to her arrest.
Fincher said that during her imprisonment, she was denied medical care for a broken hand and ovarian cyst. She also says her confinement caused her to miss out on a several important life events, including the birth of her twin grandchildren.
