Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Cheese mistaken for meth

Lawsuit charges border patrol agents used faulty drug test

A woman is suing three U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and a drug-test kit-manufacturer after enforcement officials falsely identified a food enzyme she was carrying in her car used for making cheese as methamphetamine at the San Ysidro border crossing in 2014.

Doyma Vanessa Michel was driving from Mexico into the United States on June 2, 2014, when a customs officers directed her car to secondary inspection after noticing the car she was driving was missing a front license plate.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Upon initial inspection, agents found several bottles of an unidentified liquid in Michel's car. The agents tested the substance using the Narco-Pouch 923 Methamphetamine Test Kit manufactured by the Safariland Group. The results came back positive for methamphetamine. But, according to Michel and her attorneys, the substance was not an illicit drug and she was not a drug trafficker: the substance was rennet, a food enzyme extracted from the stomach lining of a calf used to curdle milk an make cheese.

During the June 2014 incident, Michel told the agents that the results were wrong and the product was not methamphetamine. She was arrested and spent the following three months in custody. Michel was released from a federal prison in Otay Mesa in December 2014. According to the lawsuit, no additional tests were conducted on the product. There are no additional details regarding her arrest.

Michel is suing the agents, border patrol agency, and Safariland for $1.5 million for unlawful detention, inadequate training of officers, false imprisonment, and emotional and physical distress.

Michel is also accusing Safariland of misrepresenting the drug-test kit as a reliable way to identify methamphetamine when in fact the company knew otherwise.

"Safariland had superior knowledge of the field test kits such that they knew or should have known the test kits are not as reliable as marketed," reads the lawsuit.

The complaint will make its way through the federal courts.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

At Comedor Nishi a world of cuisines meet for brunch

A Mexican eatery with Japanese and French influences

A woman is suing three U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and a drug-test kit-manufacturer after enforcement officials falsely identified a food enzyme she was carrying in her car used for making cheese as methamphetamine at the San Ysidro border crossing in 2014.

Doyma Vanessa Michel was driving from Mexico into the United States on June 2, 2014, when a customs officers directed her car to secondary inspection after noticing the car she was driving was missing a front license plate.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Upon initial inspection, agents found several bottles of an unidentified liquid in Michel's car. The agents tested the substance using the Narco-Pouch 923 Methamphetamine Test Kit manufactured by the Safariland Group. The results came back positive for methamphetamine. But, according to Michel and her attorneys, the substance was not an illicit drug and she was not a drug trafficker: the substance was rennet, a food enzyme extracted from the stomach lining of a calf used to curdle milk an make cheese.

During the June 2014 incident, Michel told the agents that the results were wrong and the product was not methamphetamine. She was arrested and spent the following three months in custody. Michel was released from a federal prison in Otay Mesa in December 2014. According to the lawsuit, no additional tests were conducted on the product. There are no additional details regarding her arrest.

Michel is suing the agents, border patrol agency, and Safariland for $1.5 million for unlawful detention, inadequate training of officers, false imprisonment, and emotional and physical distress.

Michel is also accusing Safariland of misrepresenting the drug-test kit as a reliable way to identify methamphetamine when in fact the company knew otherwise.

"Safariland had superior knowledge of the field test kits such that they knew or should have known the test kits are not as reliable as marketed," reads the lawsuit.

The complaint will make its way through the federal courts.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Aaron Stewart trades Christmas wonders for his first new music in 15 years

“Just because the job part was done, didn’t mean the passion had to die”
Next Article

San Diego beaches not that nice to dogs

Bacteria and seawater itself not that great
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader