Student settles suit over mistaken beer purchase

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A college student who says she fled in terror when undercover officers who thought she had illegally bought beer swarmed her SUV has reached a $212,500 settlement with the state of Virginia.

Attorney General Mark R. Herring announced the settlement Wednesday night with Elizabeth Daly, who had filed a $40 million federal lawsuit against agents with the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The lawsuit said Daly had bought a carton of sparkling water at a supermarket in April 2013, which the agents mistook for beer. She said that the badges around the agents' necks were not clearly visible, and that the agents did not identify themselves as officers.

Student settles suit over mistaken beer purchase

I tried 2 post in but posse comitatus but could not.
This part burns me up... Herring said the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing by any of the parties in the lawsuit. Really wow i fell so much safer with these clowns keeping the beer of the streets. They the costume crusaders/officers should have to pay not the tax payers..Anyway good for her...

a reply to: switchqm8

Lol

Only in America.

You guys would sue your own shadow if it turned a profit.

a reply to: switchqm8

Alcoholic Beverage Control? Talk about a waste of time and money. Totally uneeded. Sounds like a gross overuse of power to swarm a vehicle over a college girl buying booze to begin with.

a reply to: switchqm8

I remember seeing a video of cops swarming a car and the driver hauling arse later to find out she didn't buy anything illegal for her age but she wound up in the slammer for running away.

I am thinking this is the same case.

In which case I don't blame her one bit for suing. It was the cops mistake and they looked like a bunch of thugs with guns. She was charged for evading arrest but it was later dropped.

I am pretty sure this is the same one. If not then that's just as bad because they seem to be screwing up like that far too often.

An interesting comment from op's source

James 6 hours ago

I live near C'ville and read the original newspaper accounts. I have followed this story from day one. Alcohol Beverage Control agents were dressed scruffily in T shirts, jeans, some with lots of facial hair and tattoos exposed on their forearms and came on very aggressively with the girls who had just come from a sexual assault awareness meeting. They were picking up sparkling water and cookies for a volunteer group. Once the girls fled the parking lot, they pulled over to the curb and called 911. Leader of the ABC agents had been transferred earlier from the Lynchburg VA office because of failure to follow proper procedures. Head of Virginia ABC commission resigned shortly afterward this incident. Some of the agents involved were required to undergo retraining. Numerous changes were made in ABC procedures after study including requirement that all operations of this sort include at least one uniformed officer who is readily identifiable as law enforcement.

As to what damages were suffered, every time this young lady applies for a job, a student loan, admission to school, any professional organization, a routine background check will turn up her arrest record. How may prospective employers, school admissions officers, etc. are going to give her a chance to explain the situation, and how many are going to automatically toss her application into the reject pile? She should have gotten more. And some of the agents should be in the unemployment line, but being state employees, they probably would have had to shoot the girls and a couple of bystanders to get fired, not just scare the hell out of totally innocent people and beat up their car with their guns and flashlights.

Glad I wasn't there that night. I carry concealed, and I might have misread the situation too and tried to intervene.

originally posted by: VoidHawk
An interesting comment from op's source

"Every time this young lady applies for a job, a student loan, admission to school, any professional organization, a routine background check will turn up her arrest record. How may prospective employers, school admissions officers, etc. are going to give her a chance to explain the situation, and how many are going to automatically toss her application into the reject pile?
"

Why would arrest record show up instead of criminal record? You know the list of crimes you where convicted of?

Employer - "It says here you where arrested for murder."

Jobseeker - "Mistaken identity I was released same day."

Employer - "We don't want any murderers round these parts, bye."

*Application into trash bin.*

a reply to: switchqm8

$212k.

Lets see. Well, the lawyers get 33%. The federal government gets nearly 40%. The state government gets around 7%. Some cities also have a "wage tax".

After everything is said and done, looks like she'll get about two bucks and a kick in the arse.

originally posted by: igor_ats
Why would arrest record show up instead of criminal record? You know the list of crimes you where convicted of?

Employer - "It says here you where arrested for murder."

Jobseeker - "Mistaken identity I was released same day."

Employer - "We don't want any murderers round these parts, bye."

*Application into trash bin.*

Because in the US the only thing that matters is the accusation.