Prisoner Who Drank His Urine After Being Left In Cell For Five Days Receives $4.1Million Payout
A college student who police officers left locked in a cell for five days without food or water after they forgot about him, has been awarded $4.1million by the Justice Department.
Daniel Chong was arrested on April 21, 2012, after a major drug bust, but when the 24-year-old University of California student was taken to jail and locked in a cell, he was then forgotten about.
Amy Roderick, a spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, admitted that Chong became lost after seven other suspects were interviewed in connection to his crime.
She stated, “Each suspect was interviewed in separate interview rooms, and frequently moved around between rooms and cells. The individual in question was accidentally left in one of the cells.” After being told that he would be driven home, Mr Chong was placed in a holding cell to await release, but no one ever arrived.
Because of this treatment, Chong started to starve and began to hallucinate. Chong told a news conference on Tuesday, “It was an accident, a really bad, horrible accident. I had to recycle my own urine. I had to do what I had to do to survive.”
Eugene Iredale, who worked as Mr Chong’s attorney on the case, revealed that the Justice Department are stilly trying to work out how he was forgotten about, but there are still not any answers.
Mr Iredale remarked, “What happened to Daniel should never happen to any human being on the face of the planet. The government has recognized the profound suffering that Daniel underwent.”
In response to the abuse that Chong suffered, the DEA have since installed cameras in all of the cells and they now hold daily inspections. No one has been disciplined for the drug bust that Mr Chong was originally arrested for, whilst there is no plan to file criminal charges too.
Mr Chong, who had originally intended to sue the government for $20million, has admitted that he is now back to full health.
