Police test ashes of dead toddler for drugs

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You've probably seen this story, but here's the high point in the article for me.

The incident is the latest to illustrate the risk of false positives in field-testing drug kits used by police, which in recent years have incorrectly detected drugs in objects including chocolate chip cookies, deodorant, breath mints and tortilla dough. In 2018, a Tampa Bay mother of four spent five months in jail after her vitamins falsely tested positive for oxycodone, the Miami Herald reported.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/police-told-a-man-a-container-in-his-car-tested-positive-for-drugs-it-was-his-daughter-s-ashes/ar-AAKepM0?ocid=msedgntp

Police eventually released Barnes without arresting him after both Barnes and his father, who was also present at the scene, pleaded with officers to give back the ashes of Ta’Naja Barnes, a 2-year-old girl who died of neglect and starvation in February 2019. Her mother, Twanka L. Davis, and her boyfriend, were later sentenced to decades in prison for the toddler’s death.



By testing them for drugs, police “desecrated” Ta’Naja’s ashes, Barnes said in the lawsuit filed against the city of Springfield and six Springfield police officers.

I hope he wins his lawsuit.