Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail and felony charges for UVA student

[Valin]

Hot Air:

 

Mary Katharine Ham

6/28/13

 

Thank God this story ended with everyone still alive:

 

When a half-dozen men and a woman in street clothes closed in on University of Virginia student Elizabeth Daly, 20, she and two roommates panicked.

 

That led to Daly spending a night and an afternoon in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Her initial offense? Walking to her car with bottled water, cookie dough and ice cream just purchased from the Harris Teeter in the Barracks Road Shopping Center for a sorority benefit fundraiser.

 

A group of state Alcoholic Beverage Control agents clad in plainclothes approached her, suspecting the blue carton of LaCroix sparkling water to be a 12-pack of beer. Police say one of the agents jumped on the hood of her car. She says one drew a gun. Unsure of who they were, Daly tried to flee the darkened parking lot.

(Snip)

 

 

This, in pursuit of suspected underaged drinking. After the miscommunication, Daly apologized profusely, but was slapped with a couple felony charges, including assault because she allegedly grazed officers as she was trying to get the hell away from people she thought were trying to hurt her. The charges have been dropped, but she did spend a night in jail for her cookie dough purchase. Its extremely dangerous for overzealous officers not to identify themselves properly, and as a young woman, she had every right to be afraid of a group of badly identified men coming after her.

[Valin]

When SAC 1st started HQ had infiltration teams that would conduct unannounced tests of security at SAC bases. This stopped after one got shot. Point being you state (loudly) that you're a Policeman. What if the woman or someone with her had been carrying a gun? These cops need some strong...counseling. Acturally the person in charge of this group needs to get fired, for being felonious stupid.