Quote from the article with my comments following:

The students called 911 as they left the parking lot, police said, and were pulled over by another agent driving a vehicle with lights and sirens, Charlottesville Commonwealth Attorney Dave Chapman told the paper.

Daly apologized when she realized who they were, Chapman said, but agents arrested Daly and charged her with two counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer and one count of eluding police—each carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison and $2,500 in fines. She spent the night in Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.

"This has been an extremely trying experience," Daly wrote. "It is something to this day I cannot understand or believe has come to this point."

Either can Chapman.
"It wouldn't be the right thing to do to prosecute this," he said.
Nonetheless, Chapman "stood by the agents' decision to file charges, citing faith in a process that yielded an appropriate resolution."
"You don't know all the facts until you complete the investigation," he said.


This process seems to be more and more their mode of operation. They seem to follow this business plan:

1. Everyone is a suspect, arrest anything that breathes and sort out the real story later.

2. Contrary to popular belief, the local District Attorney/Commonwealth Attorney does not work for the people, they work for the cops and the so-called "State" and will side with the cops and the so-called "State" each and every time. Your rights be damned.

Recently, I had a conversation with some local contractors one of whom made a statement to me; he said, "The people feel powerless". This incident and others like it have led me to believe that the people really ARE POWERLESS. The law of nature says the strong eat the weak and we certainly qualify as WEAK.

Here is a question for the men on this forum. How would you feel if this happened to your wife, girlfriend or your daughter while she were away at college?

Girl buys water, spends night in jail

PIGS

Thankfully, we have a very well developed legal system with a set of attorneys that are rabid for cases such as this one.

A settlement of $200K for false arrest and emotional distress will have a chilling effect on this particular group who abused the law.

It will likely have no effect on other groups of LE that abuse the law. They, too, must suffer at the hands of the judicial system. Sadly, you'll never read about that conclusion in the papers.

Sometimes there is some justice:

Brandon Mayfield - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


$2M worth in that case.

I've seen the door swing both ways. In the case you quote, justice was served. In other cases I've seen, the victim filed suit and was awarded a five year court battle which ended with the judge ruling in favor of the cops. In addition, the victim was out major $$$$$$ in attorney and court filing fees in his pursuit of "justice" and he still lost. So, it depends on how the wind blows on Monday or Wednesday. It is a literal roll of the dice.

One time I was standing in the hall outside of a courtroom and a gentlemen who was a local flooring contractor struck up a conversation with me. it seemed that on occasion, a customer either refused to pay him or did not have the ability to pay him for materials and labor in reference to flooring work. So, he sued them to try and recover his costs. he told me that if the right judge was assigned to his case he would win the case, but if his case were assigned to the wrong judge, he lost. He told me it was all a big CRAP SHOOT. He said he had come to the conclusion that in business he had a choice to make; either spend an entire day at the court house trying to squeeze money from people who didn't have any or go out and try and drum up new business. He said "I'm losing faith in the system".

I think the guy should go into a new business since he clearly does not understand how this one works.

A Contractor should always get a downpayment up front, and it should be enough to cover materials and labor. That way if he is not paid at least he is in a break even situation. When he is paid he had received his profit.

I have hired a lot of contractors and they all do business like this. One Contractor I know even bids his jobs as three times his costs. If he gets paid he makes 200% profit and that covers his profit from the times he gets stiffed. And yes, he takes the non-payers to court, but he uses his Lawyer to do this so he does not have to hang around the Courthouse all day.

I can sympathize with your flooring contractor.

When I go to court to attempt to evict a tenant for non-payment, it's the ultimate crapshoot. All the tenant needs to do is to claim that the Landlord failed to maintain one or two items on the premises or failed to give them sufficient hot water (the tankless is not unlimited) and, depending on the judge, he abates rent for a portion of the claimed money.

It's so bad that I rarely go to court seeking a monetary judgment. I simply give them a 30 day notice to get out and go to court on a "holdover" petition. There is no defense and the judge must grant the motion.

Then, I sue them in small claims court after the fact. Much better chance of a decent outcome, although it's a prolonged affair.

There's really no justice anymore against the DB's,

Further 'facts' are: The cops pulled her over since they though she had bought beer. When they found out she had bought water it seemed that everything was over until she freaked out and thought her and her friends were being attacked by people pretending to be Police.

So they tried to speed away, hit two Cops at they did, and refused to follow any orders the Police gave them since they thought they were being attacked.

But that's just another side of the story. The real facts will come out in Court.

The "real" facts will NOT come out in Court. There are 2 sides to every story. The agents will have their story intact. And the students will know what happen.

I think it's time for UNIFORMED agents to carry out all raids, busts, stops, etc. Undercover agents get to wear whatever. T-shirts that say POLICE do not count.

I hope I'm on the jury sometime of a case like this.............

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Well, there will be no criminal trial since charges were dropped. We'll see who (if anyone) sues whom. Hope that the cops ended up with wet pants after she burned out of there at the least -- couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of uniformed scum.

Sounds like the ABC agents could use some additional training. Perhaps a few months walking a beat in the South Bronx or East Flatbush would help.

A bad area of Richmond (Virginia, not Staten Island) or DC would do just fine in my book. No need to export any more bad garbage to NYC -- we have enough of a problem getting rid of it as it is

A friend of mine recently made a statement: "There is a reason for EVERYTHING". I got to thinking about it and I'd like to modify the statemtent to: "There is the apparent reason then there is the REAL reason for EVERYTHING."

I used to be very naive and believe that the story was the story and there was never any ulterior or secret motives behind an event. Then, I began running into people who shared stories that seemed to indicate otherwise.

I can't help but think that the cops didn't accidentally target this young woman. There is a good chance she was deliberately targeted for harassment. Perhaps her daddy pissed somebody off down at City Hall or perhaps one of the cops had previously tried to get a date with her and she blew him off. Somebody made the decision that it was time to punish her. And so they did.

Don't think these things happen in the old U.S. of A? Well, my friend, let me take you on a personal tour of Hazard County AKA Jerkwater AKA It isn't WHAT you know that counts but WHO you know that counts and whose a** you're kissing.

Paranoia settling in?

How about the possibility of them simply being stupid and acting like the macho DB's that many of them are?

They figured out the "crime" before they had any evidence to support it. Cops do it all the time.

No Paranoia, simply too many stories from credible people have crossed my desk which has caused me to believe that sometimes there is more to the story than what the media is reporting. Yes, what you are saying is a possibility as well. UVA Charlottesville has more than a few hot looking women. Perhaps the girl was out at a bar one night and one of these cops hit on her only to be rejected. You gotta admit, it's a possibility. I won't rule out the DB stupid cop possibility either. The assault against her may have been fueled by some of both.

The part that I don't get is the original premise that she purchased beer. Where is the evidence that she purchased beer? How did they make the original determination that she possessed beer rather than water?

How could they be that f'n stupid?

That was a rhetorical question.........................