Pennsylvania State Police paid $195,000 to settle a New York man's claims he was wrongly jailed for nearly a month after troopers using a field drug test mistook soap for cocaine, a court document obtained by The Morning Call shows.
Alexander Bernstein of Brooklyn also settled claims in his federal lawsuit against Safariland LLC, the company that produced the allegedly faulty drug test that troopers used during the November 2013 traffic stop in Lehigh County when Bernstein and a traveling companion were arrested, his lawyer said.
Attorney Joshua Karoly of Allentown said he could not discuss the terms of either settlement, except that the parties had reached mutually agreeable resolutions and agreed not to discuss them.
The Morning Call obtained a copy of the state police settlement by requesting it under Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law. Bernstein's settlement with Safariland is not subject to the public records law.
State police and Safariland did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.
While Bernstein was behind bars, he lost his job, his apartment and his possessions, rendering him homeless and destitute, the lawsuit claimed.
Bernstein's lawsuit was cited in a ProPublica investigation published July 7 in The New York Times Magazine as one of several around the country attacking the reliability of roadside chemical tests to identify drugs.
The investigation noted that tests produced by manufacturers including Safariland are not regulated, are subject to user error and misinterpretation, and can produce false positives from dozens of chemicals other than illegal drugs, including medications and household cleaners.
ProPublica estimated that at least 100,000 people across the country plead guilty each year to drug possession charges that are based solely on field tests.
"At that volume, even the most modest of error rates could produce thousands of wrongful convictions," the investigation says.
After being stopped by Pennsylvania troopers on Interstate 78 in South Whitehall Township, Bernstein and Anadel Cruz of New York were charged with possession with intent to deliver cocaine, possession of cocaine, conspiracy and possession of drug paraphernalia.
A search of their rented Mercedes-Benz revealed two brick-size packages covered in clear plastic and red tape, according to the police report. Cruz, who was the driver, told the troopers they contained homemade soap for her sister, whom Cruz was traveling to visit in Florida, it says.
But the troopers — Nicholas Goldsmith and Justin Julius — insisted the packages, which together weighed more than 5 pounds, contained "a controlled substance of some kind," Bernstein's lawsuit claimed. The troopers said they also found a small amount of marijuana in Cruz's bra.
Bernstein and Cruz were taken to a state police barracks where, Bernstein alleged, he overheard the troopers agree to a conspiracy in which they would falsely report negative field test results as positive.
The lawsuit also contains an alternative theory alleging that Safariland's field test kit was defective because it produced two separate false positive results. California-based Safariland makes and sells firearms accessories, forensic investigation tools and safety equipment for police.
Bernstein, 33, was held for 29 days in Lehigh County Prison under $500,000 bail until it was reduced and he was able to post $25,000.
After Bernstein and Cruz were released on bail, on the day a preliminary hearing was scheduled, police dropped the charges.
Bernstein was required to pay more than $32,000 in bail and court costs, plus pay a defense attorney and fees associated with having the arrest expunged from his record, the suit claimed.
"And even then, the FBI, the internet and other media sources will still contain a permanent record of his arrest and the criminal charges upon which he was maliciously prosecuted," the suit claimed.
After the charges were dismissed, Karoly and Allentown attorney Robert Goldman, who defended Cruz, called their arrests a clear case of racial profiling. They noted the troopers stopped a Hispanic woman driving a luxury car with out-of-state license plates late at night.
The reasons troopers gave to justify the stop were specious, Goldman said. The affidavit of probable cause said Cruz was driving nearly 60 mph in a 55 mph zone and they saw her tires riding on a dividing line, he noted.
"Hopefully law enforcement learns something from this episode, and hopefully prosecutors, that it isn't always what it appears," Goldman said.
