Woman Spent Months in Jail Because Cops Thought Cotton Candy Was Meth

Back in July 2016, police in Florida arrested a very unlucky retiree after mistaking the blue glaze from the guy's donut for crystal meth. The man was strip-searched and held for ten hours before everyone realized the donut frosting was, well, just donut frosting. But apparently, that 64-year-old got off pretty easy for his Krispy Kreme meth debacle, because a Georgia woman just spent months in jail for the same goddamn thing.

Now, Dasha Fincher is suing Georgia's Monroe County after spending over three months in jail—all because the cops thought her cotton candy looked like meth.

According to the lawsuit, Fincher was arrested back on New Year's Eve 2016, after being pulled over because cops thought her tinted windows were too dark. The windows reportedly wound up being totally legal, but that wasn't exactly the worst mistake police would make that night. The two officers who stopped her, Cody Maples and Allan Henderson, spotted an open bag on the floor of Fincher's car containing "a light blue substance, spherical in shape," the suit reads. Fincher told them the bag was full of cotton candy, which it was—but the pair weren't buying it.

It somehow took until March of 2017 for anyone to do an actual, honest-to-god drug test on the cotton candy and clear Fincher of her charges. She was finally released on April 4, four months later.
(VICE, November 26, 2018)
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The facts of this case are outrageous, but sadly, they’re not the product of any single bad actor or law. On the contrary, they reflect a criminal justice system that’s structurally broken at almost every level. Police investigations are invasive, unchecked, and can cause far greater harm than the underlying [alleged] criminal act; and it is nearly impossible to hold police liable for misconduct. Until we address those systemic problems, we should expect more tragic cases like this one.

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.