Virginia Student Arrested For Carrying Carton Of Water, Lawsuit Pending

Elizabeth Daly, a University of Virginia student was arrested after a law enforcement officer mistook her bottle of water for beer. Daly filed a lawsuit against the state in response to the arrest by Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) agents. Attorneys for the 20-year-old coed are seeking “unspecified damages,” according to legal filings in the case.

The lawsuit garnered national attention after the public learned that six plainclothes law enforcement agents surrounded Elizabeth Daly and two of her sorority sisters in a shopping mall parking lot. One officer pulled his gun and allegedly tried to break a window of the SUV. According to the legal documents, at least one officer allegedly jumped onto the hood of the vehicle during the incident. The college students were thought they were being attacked by criminals due to the attire the men wore.

Daly pulled away abruptly during the encounter and allegedly grazed two of the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control agents slightly in the process. The young woman was ultimately arrested on three felony charges. The counts levied against the University of Virginia student included eluding police and assaulting law enforcement officers. She spent nearly 24 hours in an Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.

The ABC agents thought the blue carton of LaCroix sparkling water was actually a 12-pack of beer. Elizabeth Daly had this to say in a written accounting of the incident:

“They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform. I couldn’t put my windows down unless I started my car, and when I started my car they began yelling to not move the car, not to start the car. They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were… terrified. This has been an extremely trying experience. It is something to this day I cannot understand or believe it has come to this point.”

Virginia prosecutors reportedly acknowledged that Daly “apologized profusely” once she became aware that the men shouting, jumping on her SUV, and attempting to break the window, were indeed police officers. The earnest “I’m sorry” did not sway the agents, even though the entire incident was premised on their unwillingness to take the time to find out exactly what the young women were carrying. Elizabeth Daly called 911 to report what had happened immediately after she drove away from the shopping center parking lot. She was reportedly on her way to the police station to give a full report when once of the ABC agents, now in a vehicle complete with lights and sirens, pulled her over.

The charges against Daly were ultimately dropped and her record expunged. After an internal review of the arrest, the Virginia ABC agency opted to implement 15 procedural and policy changes. In most instances, the state is protected from liability due to the sovereign immunity clause. Daly’s legal action was filed under the Virginia Tort claims Act, a provision which allows a person to hold a state agency or employee liable under a limited set of circumstances.

After telling reporters that Daly’s written statement was accurate, Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman said he had never experienced such a situation during his 34 years of service. “It wouldn’t be the right thing to do to prosecute this,” the local official also said. Daly and her sorority sisters had just left a “Take Back the Night” vigil at the college where sexual assault survivors shared their stories and offered safety tips for young women.

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