The Government Verses the Poppy-Seed Bagel

[Ragnar]

Poppy-Seed Bagel Triggers Kafka-esque Nightmare - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

The prison system finds it hard to say goodbye.

Nicole Defontes pulled her life back together in dramatic fashion after serving 4½ years in federal prison for participating in a cocaine deal with her then-boyfriend.

But if it weren't for the work of some determined Miami criminal defense attorneys and for a federal judge who was willing to listen, Defontes would be behind bars, unable to defend herself or present evidence to prove her innocence, and wrongly incarcerated for eating a poppy-seed bagel that produced a false positive on a drug test.

When her case landed before U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke on a habeas corpus petition to remove Defontes from the clutches of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the jurist appointed by President George W. Bush was outraged.

"When this happens in other countries, we call up Amnesty International," Cooke said at a hearing a year ago. "But for the fact of this defendant having resources, she would be in the FDC [federal detention center] supervised release gulag."

Good news: State seizes newborn baby after mom eats poppy seed bagel Hot Air

Via Jacob Sullum of Reason, consider this less a palate cleanser than a public service announcement for the HA faithful. If you’re pregnant and happen to live in Pennsylvania, avoid Dunkin Donuts at all costs.

Mort and Rodriguez’s daughter was taken by the state a mere day after they returned from the hospital. Despite a test of the child failing to uncover any trace of illicit drugs, a pair of LCCYS caseworkers and two police officers showed up at their door bearing a court order legally entitling them to seize her. And that never would have happened were it not for Jameson Hospital’s written policy of subjecting mothers-to-be to urine drug tests — and to then report them to the state for testing positive if they exceed an exceptionally low threshold that is far more stringent than the one the federal government applies to its own workers.

As Sullum notes, according to the ACLU complaint filed on the couple’s behalf, urine tests administered to Mort by her obstetrician during the pregnancy were uniformly negative for drugs. Oh well: The state grabbed the baby anyway — and held her for five days.

Really, really, really farked up shite. Farking bureaucrats have got to have their own special place waiting for them in Hell.

Hat tip to HA for the Mythbusters link...
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMqQLgw7Uz4[/ame]

 

[Madeline]

What tragedies ensure from such stupidity. Imagine losing custody of a newborn? I'd be traumatized for life. WTF could the administrators of this hospital have been thinking?

 

[Ragnar]

What tragedies ensure from such stupidity. Imagine losing custody of a newborn? I'd be traumatized for life. WTF could the administrators of this hospital have been thinking?

Mindless compliance with some, no doubt well intentioned, poorly written law. Zombie bureaucrats working in a sea of regulations and policies that remove all possible application of reason and judgement.

 

[Madeline]

What tragedies ensure from such stupidity. Imagine losing custody of a newborn? I'd be traumatized for life. WTF could the administrators of this hospital have been thinking?

Mindless compliance with some, no doubt well intentioned, poorly written law. Zombie bureaucrats working in a sea of regulations and policies that remove all possible application of reason and judgement.

I hope that family sues that hospital and its administrators right into the ground. How evil.

 

[Ragnar]

What tragedies ensure from such stupidity. Imagine losing custody of a newborn? I'd be traumatized for life. WTF could the administrators of this hospital have been thinking?

Mindless compliance with some, no doubt well intentioned, poorly written law. Zombie bureaucrats working in a sea of regulations and policies that remove all possible application of reason and judgement.

I hope that family sues that hospital and its administrators right into the ground. How evil.

My guess is the hospital has some kind of limited liability here but the hospital does not have the power to take someone's child. Only the police can do that. Same goes for the woman who nearly got thrown back into the prison system by a separate group of bureaucratic nincompoops. (note: thread title:theme)

Sidenote: how cool are the Mythbuster's dudes. That show rocks.

 

[editec]

Another tragic collatoral vicitim of the USA continue War on HUMAN FREEDOM

 

[Ragnar]

Another tragic collatoral vicitim of the USA continue War on HUMAN FREEDOM

No withdraw on the horizon, funding projected to only increase.