Students

UVa Student Arrested and Jailed For Water Mistaken for Beer Plans Civil Lawsuit Against State

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Stemming from an incident in June where plainclothes Alcoholic Beverages Control (ABC) agents attempted to apprehend her, Elizabeth Daly is now planning on pursuing legal action for a wrongful arrest and a night spent in jail.

Daly, a 20-year-old University of Virginia student, purchased a case of water bottles that ABC agents mistook for beer one evening in late June. According to the Daily Progress, Daly is seeking unspecified damages in her civil claim against the state.

Don LeMond, director of a division of the Virginia Department of the Treasury that handles certain civil claims, said Daly's claim is different from what he is used to.

"Not that many [complaints] are big issues like this one; most are relatively innocuous," he told the Daily Progress. "Most of our claims are transportation related, or come from prisoners."

According to Reason.com's Hit and Run blog, Daly was with two roommates when she purchased a case of water bottles, cookie dough and ice cream in a local shopping center. Daly and her friends panicked when the six ABC agents, dressed in plainclothes, approached them and hurried into their car and tried to escape.

Police said one of the agents jumped onto the hood of the car and Daly said one pulled a gun. The group of agents thought Daly and her friends had bought a 12-pack of beer and were looking to reprimand them for underage purchase of alcohol.

However, the students said they could not identify the badges the agents presented and ran off in a panic. Daly's arrest stemmed from fleeing the scene and reportedly striking two agents with her car, not from the purchase itself.

"They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform," Daly wrote in a statement following the incident, according to USA Today. "I couldn't put my windows down unless I started my car, and when I started my car they began yelling to not move the car, not to start the car. They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were... terrified."

The group of women dialed 911 and said they were on their way to a police station to report the incident when a cop car pulled them over.

According to the Daily Progress, Daly will be represented by James Thorsen of Marchant, Thorsen, Honey, Baldwin & Meyer, a highly successful and experienced attorney in dealing with civil claims against the state.

LeMond said the claim will open lines of communication between the state and Thorsen. The state withdrew charges against Daly in June and expunged them from her record in Oct. and an internal ABC review influenced 15 policy changes. Still, LeMond said the open dialogue will likely result in a settlement agreement out of court.

CLICK HERE to read the Daily Progress' full coverage of the incident.

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