Georgia Woman Who Was Locked Up For Possessing Cotton Candy Sues County

Dasha Fincher is suing Monroe County after a roadside drug kit falsely labeled a bag of the sugary treat as methamphetamine.

A woman who spent more than three months in jail is suing a Georgia county after a roadside drug kit falsely labeled a bag of cotton candy as methamphetamine.

According to a lawsuit obtained by local CBS affiliate WMAZ, Dasha Fincher is suing the Monroe County Board of Commissioners, two sheriff’s deputies and Sirchie ― the manufacturer of the test.

Fincher was arrested on Dec. 31, 2016, after officers pulled over the vehicle she was traveling in because they believed its window tint was too dark.

While the tint was not found to be in violation of the law, a plastic bag containing “a light blue substance, spherical in shape” was located “in the floor board of the vehicle” following an extensive search.

Though Fincher stated that the bag contained cotton candy, officers carried out a test on the substance using a Nark II roadside kit, which falsely identified it as methamphetamine.

According to the lawsuit, the test kits have “a history of producing false positive results.”

HuffPost has reached out to Sirchie, the kits’ manufacturer, for comment.

Fincher, who was charged with trafficking and possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, spent more than three months in jail after her bond was set at $1 million, the lawsuit said.

She was released in April 2017 after a report by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found that there were no controlled substances present in the plastic bag.

An emotional Fincher told WMAZ last Friday that she wanted “Monroe County to pay” for what they did to her, adding that she missed major life events while behind bars.

“My daughter had had a miscarriage, so I wasn’t here for that. My twin grandsons were born, I missed that,” she said.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

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