DEA Oversight Rocks Southern California and the World

In spring 2012, the city of San Diego witnessed a truly sensational personal injury lawsuit in the making. The case, which made international headlines, involved a staggering bureaucratic oversight – one that nearly cost a 23-year-old student his life. Within a few days of the story breaking, the man’s personal injury lawyer announced he was seeking $20 million in damages from the federal government – the maximum amount allowed under the law. Although it seems improbable the case will get as far as a trial, it’s surely one that will be followed from San Diego to Sarasota and far beyond.

On April 21, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency conducted a raid at a house near the University of California at San Diego. They arrested nine people as part of an anti-ecstasy sweep. One of them was 23-year-old UCSD engineering student named Daniel Chong, who had gone to the house to smoke marijuana with some friends. At the DEA facility, he was told he was not being charged and would be released shortly. Agents cuffed him and placed him in a holding cell while they processed his release papers. The next time Chong saw anyone was four days later when he was discovered, allegedly by accident.

Locked and handcuffed in a cell with no toilet, no food, and no water, he screamed, pounded on the door, and prepared for death. He ate a white powder he said was left in the cell with him, which he claimed caused him to hallucinate. He bit into his glasses in an attempt to carve a goodbye message on his arm. He was hospitalized for five days with a perforated lung injury from the glass that he ingested. In the official notice submitted to the DEA, Chong’s lawyer stated that his treatment constituted torture, a point that will no doubt be hotly debated by lawyers from both sides if the personal injury suit goes to court. In the meantime the DEA remained tight-lipped about the incident, citing an ongoing investigation, although it issued an official apology to Chong. But the agency’s actions have drawn the anger of news-watchers around the world, closely following the case from places as varied as Sarasota and Hong Kong.

The Chong case is a sober reminder to Sarasota victims and anyone who has experienced physical suffering as the result of someone else’s lapses in judgment that personal injury suits aren’t limited to car accidents and poorly signed construction sites. Indeed, agents acting on behalf of government entities can and do harm to individuals. Chong and his personal injury lawyer may eventually settle with the government, but the case will be almost certainly scrutinized for years to come.