Student Wins Cash from Philly After False 2003 Airport Drug Arrest

PHILADELPHIA - A Bryn Mawr College student wrongly jailed for three weeks on drug charges by Philadelphia police has settled her civil-rights case for $180,000.

Janet H. Lee, now a senior, was arrested at Philadelphia International Airport in 2003 after screeners found three condoms filled with white powder in her carry-on and city police said field tests showed that the substances likely contained opium and cocaine.

Lee was held in lieu of $500,000 bond for 21 days, until further drug testing proved that her unlikely story - that the powder was just flour - was true.

As part of an exam ritual in her dorm, Lee had filled the condoms with flour to make a phallic toy that freshmen squeezed to reduce stress. She had found it so funny that she had packed them to take home to California to show friends after exams.

Lee's civil-rights case against the city had been scheduled for trial Thursday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.

"Everyone wants their day in court, so it was difficult" to settle, in part because she will never know why the flour initially tested positive for drugs, she said Wednesday.

"It's like everyone was at fault, but no one was responsible," Lee said.

At least, she said, the settlement means she will not have to testify about what it is like to spend three weeks in a city jail for a crime she did not commit, particularly after spending much of the last three years working to heal herself psychologically.

"Part of going to trial would have meant that I have to acknowledge losses and admit that this had damaged me," she said. "I didn't want to have to admit that."

Lynne Sitarski, chief deputy of the city solicitor's civil-rights division, said the city "is not admitting wrongdoing or liability."

The settlement, the city lawyer said, was "in the best interests of the city."

Lee, now 21, was not physically injured while jailed, said her lawyer, Jeffrey Ibrahim.

One of the settlement provisions allows Lee to meet with city police to discuss what happened.

"Leadership is going to sit down and listen with her to see what went on," Ibrahim said.

Lee has heard criticism that carrying white substances onto an airplane was a foolhardy act. But, she said Wednesday, she did not know at the time that drug dealers often carry drugs in condoms. "I was naive, really stupid," she said.

Nonetheless, her lawyer said, the police drug test should not have detected drugs.

"Under the circumstances, something went terribly wrong," Ibrahim said. "We're trying to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again."

Asked if others had successfully sued or settled claims involving false-positive drug tests in Philadelphia in the past two or three years, Sitarski said that no one had.

Lee, a comparative literature major, said she planned to use the settlement money to pay for graduate school, though she has not determined what kind of graduate work she will pursue. Law school is an unlikely option, she said.

(c) 2007, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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