14 DAY TRIAL // While driving on the Interstate from New York to Florida , Annadel Cruz and her friend Alexander Bernstein were stopped by a state trooper for going five miles over the speed limit, but were arrested for drug dealing and trafficking.
The officer accused the lady of smelling of marijuana and immediately assumed the worst. Cruz, the driver of a brand new Mercedes-Benz rental, admitted to the fact that she smoked the drug before leaving home, but not in the car.
The trooper started searching the car, with Cruz's consent and found two plastic-wrapped packages in the trunk that looked like cocaine. Annadel told the man that it was house-made soap and she was taking it to her sister in Florida, but it didn't matter as the man made a field test that stated it was cocaine.
Cruz and her friend were arrested and charged with possession with intent to deliver cocaine, possession of cocaine, conspiracy and possession of drug paraphernalia. The bail was set for $500,000 (€363,500) for Bernstein and $250,000 (€181,800) for Cruz, according to the Morning Call.
After almost one month, the test proved that the substance the trooper believed to be cocaine was actually soap and that the two spent a month in jail and ruined their reputation because of hefty test. Officials immediately confirmed the lab finding and withdrew all charges filed against the two soap dealers.
The trooper was accused of profiling the couple and botching the field test leading to the mistreatment and unfair arrest of two innocent people that ended up spending a whole month in jail. The attorney handling the case said that police officers must not rely on field tests that can often be misleading or not accurate.
Also, law enforcement must be trained to avoid profiling that can cause poor judgments and take innocent people to jail. The couple will have to struggle with the stigma of being incarcerated and the label of drug offenders after being wrongfully arrested.