GA WOMAN JAILED 3 MONTHS ON 1 MILLION DOLLAR BOND FOR POSSESSION OF COTTON CANDY – SUES

A woman has sued a Georgia county, claiming she was jailed for three months over a misidentified bag of cotton candy.

WMAZ-TV reports Dasha Fincher filed a lawsuit in federal court against the board of commissioners in Monroe County, two deputies and a drug test manufacturer, Sirchie Acquisition Company.

According to the suit, the officers tested a bag of cotton candy found in Fincher’s friend’s car during a traffic stop in 2016.

The officers who tested the substance said they were pulled over for a tint violation, but later said the window coloring was legal. An officer said Fincher was “shaking” during the traffic stop, and that she became “very anxious” when asked about the baggie, according to an incident report obtained by the news station.

Fincher was then arrested and charged with possession and trafficking of meth with intent to distribute and held in jail on $1 million bond. She spent four months in jail due to not being able to afford the bail.

In March 2017, the charges were dropped after a lab test showed the blue material contained no controlled substances.

While incarcerated, Fincher said she missed “several serious life events,” including the birth of two grandsons and her daughter’s miscarriage, the lawsuit said.

Fincher says the deputies should have known that the blue food coloring in the cotton candy may have caused the false positive and that it would have been unlikely for someone to leave a large bag of meth in plain sight.

She is seeking punitive damages, as well as court fees. “I want Monroe County to pay for they did to me,” Fincher said, according to WMAZ.