By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
The Justice Department criticized the DEA for the lax discipline of agents who detained a San Diego college student and left him without food or water for five days, NPR reports.
Daniel Chong was handcuffed and left in a dark room during the 2012 detention in which he tried to stay hydrated by drinking his own urine.
“What happened to Mr. Chong is unacceptable,” the Justice Department said in a letter released Tuesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“The DEA’s failure to impose significant discipline on these employees further demonstrates the need for a systemic review of DEA’s disciplinary process.”
Chong settled with the government for $4.1 million.
“I didn’t stay sane,” he told All Things Considered’s Audie Cornish in May 2012, weeks after his arrest. “Eventually, by the second or third night … I went completely insane and was just trying to get a grip on reality, on what’s happening to me.”
