RM13M for ‘forgotten’ student

Payout in settlement for being abandoned in cell for four days

SAN DIEGO: A 25-year-old college student reached a US$4.1mil (RM13.3mil) settlement with the US government after he was abandoned in a windowless cell for more than four days without food or water, his attorneys said.

Daniel Chong ( pic) said he drank his own urine to stay alive, hallucinated that agents were trying to poison him with gases through the vents, and tried to carve a farewell message to his mother in his arm.

It remained unclear how the situation occurred, and no one has been disciplined, said Eugene Iredale, an attorney for Chong, The Justice Department’s inspector-general is investigating.

“It sounded like it was an accident – a really, really bad, horrible accident,” Chong said.

Chong was taken into custody during a drug raid and placed in the cell in April 2012 by a police officer authorised to perform Drug EnforcementAdministration (DEA) work. The officer told Chong he would not be charged and said, “Hang tight, we’llcomegetyouin a minute,” Iredale said on Tuesday.

Justice Department spokeswoman Allison Price confirmed the settlement was reached for US$4.1mil but declined to answer other questions. The DEA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chong said he planned to save and buy his parents a house.

Chong was a 23-year-old engineering student when he was at a friend’s house where the DEA found 18,000 ecstasy pills, other drugs and weapons. Iredale acknowledged Chong was there to consume marijuana.

Chong and eight other people were taken into custody, but authorities decided against pursuing charges against him after questioning.

Chong said he began to hallucinate on the third day in the cell. He urinated on a metal bench so he could have something to drink. He stacked a blanket, his pants and shoes on a bench and tried to reach an overhead fire sprinkler, trying with his cuffed hands to set it off.

Chong said he accepted the possibility of death. He bit into his eyeglasses to break them and used a shard of glass to try to carve “Sorry Mom” onto his arm so he could leave something for her. He only managed to finish an “S”.

Chong said he slid a shoelace under the door and screamed to get attention before five or six people found him covered in his feces in the cell.

“All I wanted was my sanity,” Chong said. “I wasn’t making any sense.”

Chong was hospitalised for five days for dehydration, kidney failure, cramps and a perforated esophagus. He lost6.8kg.

The DEA issued a rare public apology at the time. — AP