Alleged CD-bootlegger abandoned in solitary jail cell, left to drink own urine
A 38-year old mom in Arkansas went to court on a Thursday to plead innocent on charges of selling pirated music CDs at a local flea market. But the bailiff locked her up in solitary, then forgot about her and went home for the weekend.
[For] four full days, Adriana Torres-Flores was locked away and forgotten in 8 1/2-by-9 1/2-foot cell in the Washington County Courthouse, with only a metal table, two benches and a light bulb that never went out. She had nothing to eat or drink. There was no toilet. Thursday passed. Then Friday, Saturday and Sunday - although Torres-Flores had no watch to tell the time. She slept on the floor with her head on a shoe. She drank her own urine, she said.Link (thanks, *daha*).Panicked and afraid she would die, Torres-Flores pounded on the steel door with her hands and feet, and yelled. No one heard her. The threat of snow had thinned the courthouse staff Friday. The building was closed all weekend.
It was Monday morning before the bailiff who had put her in the holding cell, intending to have her taken to jail, opened the door and realized his mistake.
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Wow. That's just insane.
What can you say other than... Arkansas.
That'll make for nice lawsuit.
I can say six figure compensation, easy. Man, wish I had a law degree.
Ah, but on what criminal charges will the bailiff be brought up on? Any?
negligence?
false imprisonment? reckless endangerment?
What can we surmise about the bailiff?
At 18, refused by the military. Came in last on intelligence test behind Homer Simpson.
At 19, failed the community college entrance exam (no law enforcement program for him).
At 20, first DUI.
At 21, detox and rehab.
At 22, failed TSA intelligence test. Came in just behind the inanimate carbon rod.
At 23, accepted Arkansas bailiff position after determining that Mississippi and Alabama were too so-fist-imacated for him.
Can I call 'em or what?
Now it's the bailiff on the backfoot, she'll sure make some money out of them; if a thief who injured himself jumping over his victims fence can win a lawsuit, she definately can!
This is the future for everyone unless this criminal administration is stopped and stopped now.
Oh come on - like you people have never gotten in a hurry to get the hell out of Dodge, and locked someone in solitary confinement and forgotten you did it (and forgot to tell anyone on the way the hell out of Dodge...)
Buuuut seriously, folks... he, no doubt, will be slapped on the wrist, put on desk duty for a month or so, and then returned to active duty. The city will settle with the plaintiff, and little more will ever be heard of this again.
This is clearly an horrific case, and in my view she deserves substantial monetary compensation, and they need to revamp their procedures to avoid this problem in the future. But the bailiff did not do anything criminal. When a broken system fails we need to fix the system, not make a scapegoat out of some poor undertrained, and likely underbrained, functionary.
#4 :
A government employee, charged?
Hell, frozen?
Who hasn't lost their cellphone for a weekend? Yeah I know this is different. But it's easier to lose a bootlegger than it is to lose a cellphone - you're in the habit of keeping track of your phone, but bootleggers come and go.
I foresee a RIAA PSA citing this example as one of the bad things that can, and will, happen to people making unauthorized copies of music CDs.
They don't look kindly on bootleggers in Hazard County.
YeeHaaaa!
@#7-Edward Oleander: I don't know about the bailiff, but we can certainly surmise a great deal about you from your post...
In the article they specifically mention how broken up the bailiff was about this. #11 (Mr. Gibson) is spot on with this. Compensate the lady for her pain and suffering and fix the system.
Somewhere...
....Lars Ulrich is smiling.
I doubt she'll get much in monetary compensation. Did anyone else see the part where she's facing deportation?
here's a horror story
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5i9ctsI8OdAw9NtjLvZTyfSv0Wf8w
I agree this is a horrific story, but a few key details have been left out in this retelling: While she was arrested in December for selling bootlegged CDs, she was in jail this time because she violated her bail conditions, and because she had an illegal immigration status. So in short, the jail was about violating bail and losing legal immigration status, not about pirated CDs.
He may be entirely broken up about it. Systemic issues may have allowed it to happen. But c'mon Walter, her life was in his hands. He should be charged with whatever gross negligence is applicable.
#18
I don't know about the U.S., but in the U.K. there is a concrete amount of how much compensation you receive depending on how long you go in for, ironically minus room and board which the state takes back. The process takes about two years, but the money comes in eventually. She wont be deported until her piracy hearing/any resulting sentence concludes, which should be time to start compensation proceedings.
So the moral of the story? Don't bootleg CD's... OR THE MAN WILL KILL YOU!!
I hope she gets one BILLION dollars.
She'll think twice about ever ripping a CD again !
Apparently the Washington County Courthouse would make an excellent target for a terrorist attack, as they apparently have no security on the weekends.
Stories like this are why I want to kick proponents of so-called "torte reform" in the nuts (after torte reform, of course). There is no liability cap high enough to allow for negligence bordering on reckless endangerment.
#13 @ SONGE
Although I see your point, it is his job to keep track of the prisoners.
He failed his duty, he should be fired. In addition, his actions are criminally negligent and he should be brought up on charges...
I can dream, right?
Are we sure he really 'forgot'? Hee hee.
I'm surprised no one's mentioned that she did it wrong:
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=575026 (though he goes overboard... you only need the vapor phase)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urophagia#Health_issues
"the jail was about violating bail and losing legal immigration status, not about pirated CDs." Well then she deserved it didn't she?
Has anyone considered the pain and suffering that the recording industry has endured at the hands of this woman?
And what about the "Beastie Boys", and "Men Without Hats", shouldn't something be owed to them as well?
Poor dears.
[insert reference to the duke boys here]
I hat to say it, but I do not think this would have happened if she was a white suburbanite. Such a person would have had their legal counsel fetched as soon as she got busted.
So negligence should be charged, and while the baliff 'feels bad about it', that does not make up for the horror the woman experienced.
On the other hand, in Mexico you're guilty until proven otherwise (Maximilian law). But this happened here in the U.S. and the dumbass deserves whatever he gets in terms of punishment. And the county/whatever deserves to be sued for hiring a dumbass.
Just saying.
That bailiff should be tried for attempted murder.
I'm sure this is just a pilot program from the RIAA.
naw, they would have found a way to drain the urine before she could drink it
What does this story have to do with pirating cds?
Was it bootleg pee?
http://theworldwrites.blogspot.com/
she was wearing a peg-leg?
I can't believe that, in 2008, there is a person in a position of authority who believes it is appropriate to lock someone in solitary fucking confinement for bootlegging CDs.
Wow lots of snooty assholes looking down on Arkansans.
Two words: Fuck you!
Wil, it was a holding cell. She was supposed to only be in there for about an hour before being taken to a courtroom.
Hyperkine,
Your tone is unlikely to win people to your viewpoint. You've created a bit of irony in which the stated meaning, that Arkansans are deserving of respect, is antithetical to the literal meaning, that you have a limited vocabulary consisting primarily of poorly hurled obscenities.
@Noen: No. But it puts the story in context. This story isn't really about a CD bootlegger anymore than one of those "Videogamer Shoots Up a Minimart" stories on Fox News.
It's a story about criminal negligence. Remember the lady who accidentally shut a kid's coat in her car door and dragged her to death behind the car for miles before she realized her error? This strikes me as a similar deal. The guy was new, he made a huge mistake (a mind-bogglingly huge mistake), but I'm sure he's already pretty destroyed about this.
The lady should get a sizable settlement and a pass on her sentence. What a horrible experience. The rush to put security cameras and other useless crap in the cell is just a replacement for the type of responsibility that should prevail in a prison.
The fact that she is a CD bootlegger has as much to do with the story as the fact that she's an illegal alien.
This could have happened anywhere. I am quite surprised at the plethora of "Well, Arkansas," comments.
This is the sort of idiotic humor that misses the point of the story. It's not a commentary on those 'slack-jawed yokels' who reside in Arkansas. It's an intriguing and sad human interest piece about negligence. I honestly don't see how the state it happens in has anything to do with it.
If this incident would have taken place in Illinois, New York, or California there wouldn't be this weird blame-the-state mentality.
I get it. It's easy to rag on Arkansas because it's in the South.
If you're going to say something about Arkansas, don't be cheap or clichéd about it (honestly, Duke boy references?). If you're going for humor, don't use the "Meet The Spartans" tactic of expecting something to be funny just because you say the word. Saying "Arkansas," and expecting a laugh is just ridiculous. I expected better from the readers of boingboing.
I am quite surprised at the plethora of "Well, Arkansas," comments.
And I'm even more surprised at your radical redefinition of 'plethora'. Out of 46 comments, only two mention Arkansas in a derogatory manner. What are you on about?
Out of 46 comments, only two mention Arkansas in a derogatory manner.
Four. #1, #7, #15, #32.
Fine, I'll give you #15, but #32 is an ironic reference to anti-Southern bias. So that makes 3 out of 46. No plethora. 3/46 means that Arkansas is fairing better than the Dalai Lama in BB comment threads today.
but #32 is an ironic reference to anti-Southern bias
I dunno, when internet types say things like "insert joke about X here" it's not usually meant to suggest that they think the joke is inappropriate or unfair, it's generally just a sort of self-conscious thing to indicate that they realize the joke is a little obvious or corny or something, but they can't resist the temptation to make it anyway.
Four days in a cold cell without food or water, being forced to poop on the floor and drink your own urine - I'm sure media company executives regard this as a perfectly just and appropriate punishment for buying bootleg disks, and don't see anything wrong with it.
@ Corey
I find it humorous that in your quest to seek out justice for Arkansas, you missed out on the real reason for all the "Dukes of Hazzard" references.
Uncle Jesse was a bootlegger. One of the best, in fact. You could use his moonshine in place of gasoline. Anyone from Arkansas would know that.
she is made!
Four days without water could have easily killed her.
Seven figure settlement easily.
Minus the fine for selling bootleg CDs obviously.
She drank pee, dirty.
Of course, Dukes of Hazzard was set in Georgia, not Arkansas. And many southerners hated that show, so Takeshi's "Anyone from Arkansas would know that" is wrong (and can be added to the anti-Arkansas count as far as I'm concerned).
I agree that Corey's "plethora" was an overstatement, but then again, the very first commenter started the bashing, several piled on, and nobody said, "Hey, stop it" for a good long while. And now folks are complaining because Corey DID say "Hey, stop it." Heh.
As far as the story's concerned, it's terrible, and I hope that she wins a bundle and that Washington County gets their system fixed.
For those of you who are suggesting that the president should put a stop to this kind of practice, remember, these rules are in place to stop the terrorists.
This woman could have had information which could have been used to save lives, did you ever think about that?!
"If this incident would have taken place in Illinois, New York, or California there wouldn't be this weird blame-the-state mentality."
If it happened in Illinois, people would have blamed the state, or at least the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. There is a high concentration of corrupt nepotist asshats there.
technically, under American law, is she a "person"?
She has no citizenship. She was in the country illegally. She is charged with a crime. Are the authorities obligated in any way to extend her any rights whatsoever? Legally?
If so, what law says so? If international law, which?
Is creative commons content so bad that you would rather eat your own excrement in solitary confinement rather than listen/watch/read/consume it to satisfy your fantasy addiction? Next on fox news.
What are they thinking having a prison cell with no toilet? Who designed that?
That's a horrible thing to happen to someone. She probably legitimately believed after 4 days that she would die there of starvation. Nobody should have to go through that. An event like that doesn't happen in a vacuum. More than one thing went wrong for a prisoner to get lost that way. It wasn't only the bailiff's fault. Record keeping systems track every person in custody. They get reviewed by multiple people, and on a frequent basis. For this tragedy to happen, a LOT of people didn't do their jobs properly. It's probably unfair to blame the whole state, but I'm betting that the inevitable review of performance at that facility will turn up evidence of other serious problems.
And these southern FREAKS are again going to elect the next President of the United States. It is time for the North to pull away from these inbred apes and form a separate country. The South is nothing but a drain on we educated people.
It is not just a thing people joke about or portray in movies. I lived in the South for almost two years and I saw it. They really are the laziest, slowest and most ignorant form of bile God put on this planet.
Do not fear the Islamic terrorists. I most vile and dangerous enemy to the decent people in this country live to our south and I do not mean Mexico.
read To Kill A Mocking Bird
"And these southern FREAKS are again going to elect the next President of the United States. It is time for the North to pull away from these inbred apes and form a separate country. The South is nothing but a drain on we educated people."
Well, we can't count you as part of the "Educated" people, not even by Northerner standards. The average New Yorker would spit on you without second thought.
Reformulate your statement in a more intelligent manner, then get back to us.
[One typically pleads guilty or not guilty. One does not plead "innocent".
Pet peeve.]
@Schadenjoy:
I know where the Duke boys are from. As for whether or not my comment may be counted among the anti-Arkansas statements here, I'm not sure I much care how you see it, but still... you're flat wrong. What I said was far from hostile or even truly derisive. Besides, Andy Kaufman made fun of Arkansas, and it was pretty damned funny.
The fact is, I'm from Texas, the most unpopular state the south has to offer, and I love "The Dukes of Hazzard." Secretly, of course. But since when did it become off-limits to make jokes about how much people like you are freaking out over a few misguided comments on BoingBoing?
As far as *I'm* concerned, cultural sensitivity is important, but for some people, seemingly, it is not unlike a crack addiction. Go ahead and wave your digital fists around, indignant warriors. Tell these Internet jerks how to talk proper-like.