Cops Mistake Vitamins for Opioids and Jail Innocent Mom for Months

a reply to: 727Sky

Cops who can't tell, or at the very least question, the difference between vitamins and drugs should go back for some retraining.
Every vitamin tablet I have ever seen looks nothing like a prescription pill. Of course, I have not been trained to know what I am looking at, nor do I see very many prescription tablets.

originally posted by: annoyedpharmacist
pills have certain identifying marks on them to tell you what they are. the field test can still be used, but ffs, just look up pill identifier online and see if the markings on the pill match oxycodone, is it that hard?

People use molds and press their own #.
Those go around a lot.

a reply to: tinymind

Too many out there
Lots of shapes and colors.
Brand and generic

I consider myself an expert and I still have to research sometimes

I dunno, maybe it's just me, but it seems like there might be a little more to the story than what we're getting here.

I'm thinking it's not as cut and dried as is being presented here.

Some key facts are missing...

a.) What time was it?
b.) Was the car in a known drug area?
c.) Did the officer have probable cause? (smell of alcohol, etc.)
d.) Was the car registered to someone other than the driver?
e.) Oh, and was there someone else in the car?
f.) Were the "vitamins" in their original container, or a different one?

ETA - A couple interesting elements here...

1. She wasn't being held without bail. She couldn't post bond, and neither could her husband...for FIVE MONTHS! This suggests a couple things; one, they don't have any money (not bad, just an observation), and two, they don't carry a lot of credibility with a bail bondsmen with what money they do have...and, none of their friends or family have any money / credibility either. Bond on a charge like this would be $50k max, of which 10% collateral would likely be required for bail...that's $5,000.

2. That she needed a public defender further reinforces the above. Even more telling though is the fact the public defender didn't believe her story either (very, VERY, unusual!!). Typically, a public defender would be all over one of these cases because they'd know they can win. They'll jump through hoops on a slam dunk murder case, why not this one???

ETA 2 - The bond, as it turns out was not $50,000, but $5,000...meaning they only needed about $500 worth of collateral to get her out. Hmmmm...

originally posted by: TinySickTears

originally posted by: annoyedpharmacist
pills have certain identifying marks on them to tell you what they are. the field test can still be used, but ffs, just look up pill identifier online and see if the markings on the pill match oxycodone, is it that hard?

People use molds and press their own #.
Those go around a lot.

So why not just check the person to see if they're impaired under the same standards as would be used for alcohol impairment? If the cop has no idea what the pill is and the driver isn't impaired, it seems like a dumb move to press charges. OK, most people are mentally impaired but you know. Reasonably fit to drive.

She should have used Flintstones vitamins...

Another thing...if she kept the "vitamins" in a container which had oxycodone in it previously, then residue would be present in the container, causing the 'vitamins' to test positive.

Like I've said; there's more to this case than what is being presented here (or in the linked news articles).

All the cop had to do was use their magical black box usually referred to as a smartphone and cross reference the characteristics of the pill at a pill identification website. Just lazy and looking for that easy arrest. Arrests after all are big part of their job performance evaluation leading to promotion. Everyone wants more money and will take easy points when the chance is given.

originally posted by: intrepid
She should have used Flintstones vitamins...

I had not seen that before... Thanks Carlin was one of a kind.... very funny video

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

Vitamins are not required to be labeled in the same way OTC drugs are. Many have no markings at all.

Then again, so do illegal street drugs.

This would never have proved her innocence; the only thing it possibly might have proven is her guilt.

Look at the picture in the linked OP article.

Does this look like the girl who would be saying in a dainty voice...

"Oh noes, Dear Mr. Officer, oh my heck I think you are possibly mistaken, dear sir."

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Look at the picture in the linked OP article.

Does this look like the girl who would be saying in a dainty voice...

"Oh noes, Dear Mr. Officer, oh my heck I think you are possibly mistaken, dear sir."

People should be dealt with by the law because of how they look?

a reply to: intrepid

No, that's not my point.

My point is; there's more to this story. The media is portraying this as if she's a saint (go figure, media). All I'm saying is; there's more to the story than Snow White getting pulled over by big ol' meanie cop, tossed in the big bad slammer for no reason and then not even the public defender believes her.

No, there's definitely a hell of a lot more to this story than what is being presented.

ETA - And if I were to speculate, I'd bet the story probably goes a little something like this...

The cop pulls up and asks what's going on. She tells him she's out of gas. He asks her for some ID and maybe a registration for the car. She gets sassy with him because she doesn't think she should have to do this. She's acting strangely, or erratically. He asks if he can take a look inside the car. She tells him sure, whatever. He finds a prescription bottle of pills in someone else's name, and asks her if they're her's and what they are. She gets snotty and say's they're "vitamins". He doesn't believe her so he tests them. Because the same bottle had Oxycodone in it recently, the "vitamins" test positive.

Back at the jailhouse she's pissed (perhaps rightfully so, but she's also a hot-head). Eventually the public defender comes to see her after he watches the video of the incident. She's crazed by now, lashing out at everyone and everything. He sees her demeanor and couples it with the arrest video and doesn't believe her.

Doesn't that seem a lot more plausible?

originally posted by: TinySickTears
a reply to: 727Sky

I could sacrifice a few months in jail for the kind of cash she is gonna get.

It sucks though. Not just with this but people are popped with false positives all the time. Then you get situations like the lady in Boston that was faking test results to convict people and taking drugs home for like 10 years.

Everyday people are at the mercy of the system

So for some reason, i cannot find a link to this story, i've tried a bunch of search engines now. But she wasn't just taking the drugs she was high at work on on the ultra pure samples of meth they have at testing labs and did most of her drug tests while #ed up and gave testimony in court while high. If I remember it put almost a decade worth of court cases in to question and any evidence she'd given over the years became inadmissable.

a reply to: 727Sky


As a medically retired cop from Ca. My thoughts may be "biased/skewed" but I will certain call a 'spade' a shovel...

This is lazy police work. Where I worked We used a 'ValTox' Field Testing Kit and it should be noted that the Field Test is nothing more than a "Presumptive" The suspected contraband would then be tested at a Certified Laboratory.

This reads as if someone/somewhere didn't do the further testing?? I wonder if the Sheriff's Office was charged for the test(s) and they weren't done.

Here's the thing I find odd about this story it's not the actions of the officers, but the action of the Sheriff's office / DA.

Field drug test kits are really only supposed to be used as "probable cause" for an arrest. Following seized alleged narcotics are supposed to be lab tested to confirm the field test. Only after this point should the DA be considering bringing charges, not before.

Field drug tests have never been intended to be the last word on substances. Detailed lab analysis is required to confirm suspicions.

I could understand an overnight stay at the greybar hotel while waiting for the lab to open, but not what happened here.

Interestingly though, she's going after the field test company. If it were me, I'd be going after the municipality of the Sheriff's office. And it wouldn't be three years later either! It'd be like the next freaking day! I'd also be demanding the public defender get the lab results of the test, and every single one of my phone calls would be to contact people on the outside to do the same damn thing.

What the hell was her husband doing for these five months she sat in jail??????? If that were my wife, I'd be living on the Courthouse steps until I got some damn answers!!!!

There's WAY more to this story!!!

The standard $2 field drug tests, manufactured by The Safariland Group, have been proven to be unreliable. And according to the manufacturer, should not be used as a stand-alone test for convictions related to drug possession.

Studies have shown how everyday foods, spices, and medicine tested positive in field drug tests. In one experiment, scientists even discovered that air could set off false positive for these tests.

...

Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, a Ph.D. chemist and former FBI lab supervisor, has also voiced objections, saying that he has “no confidence at all in those test kits.”

"air could set off false positive for these tests"

Safariland Group keeps making money selling bad test kits. How about stop buying them.

a reply to: 727Sky

Even if the pills where real....... prison for oxycodene? WTF?

Cause jailing users actually accomplishes anything.....

a reply to: DieGloke

No argument here, but that's not the AO's or the Court's choice.

They have to follow the laws on the books as written.

a reply to: 727Sky

Wow, that's certainly alarming! You would think law enforcement would have a back-up system to make sure pills that are found on someone are actually illegal. I wonder if this mom hired an attorney on day one to help prove those pills were just vitamins!

I really think throwing people in jail for illegal substances is unproductive. Instead they should be admitted to a drug rehabilitation center and are not allowed to stop treatment until they're clean. Our prisons are getting overloaded with people who are not a criminal threat to the rest of society. It's about time the U.S. has some heart and start treating these individuals for their addiction. If they have to lock them up, put them in a facility with only addicts and have a program that treats their addiction.