Man jailed after police mistake vitamins for drugs
A MAN was left languishing in jail for three months after police mistook his vitamins for illegal drugs.
Joseph Ray Burrell was pulled over by an officer because his car lights were switched off.
When Burrell was questioned and searched the officer found a plastic bag of powder which tested positive for amphetamine in initial readings.
Although the 31-year-old from Minnesota, USA, insisted that the powder was for shoulder pain, he was taken to the county jail and locked up for almost three months.
But while Burrell was waiting to be tried for two felony counts of drug possession, a more accurate lab test by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension showed the powder was indeed just vitamins.
"I had been sitting in the jail since November with my bail set at $250,000 (£162,000)," said Burrell, who has a history of drug use and a string of criminal convictions.
"Then, two days before trial, they dropped the charges and let me go."
