A Florida man says he spent 90 days in jail after police officers stopped him and found white powder in his car, mistaking it for cocaine.
It turned out the powder was drywall.
Karlos Cashe, a handyman, exited jail last week after lab results came back, determining the powder was drywall, CBS News reported.
During the traffic stop, the officer tested the powder with a field testing kit, which returned a positive for cocaine—to Cashe’s surprise and dismay.
He was stopped for driving without his headlights on, and a K-9 dog was brought to the scene and alerted police. Cashe explained he’s a handyman who uses drywall on a regular basis. After running his license plate, police found that he was on probation for cocaine and marijuana. Then, the field test also came back positive for cocaine, according to CBS News.
He was arrested, booked, and faced drug charges. Cashe was on probation for a previous drug offense, and his bond was denied, forcing him to sit in jail.
“You found drywall and you turned it into cocaine and it cost me 90 days trying to prove my innocence, ” said Cashe, Fox13 reported.
According to WESH-TV, authorities said Cashe was arrested for possession of both cocaine and marijuana. The misdemeanor marijuana charge was dropped by the State Attorney’s Office.
“I want some compensation from them. When I make a mistake I pay for it. That’s why I was on probation. It’s not different for them,” he said of the result.
“I was going to jail for something that night, and what it was they decided it would be cocaine,” Cashe told CBS.
The Oviedo Police Department told WKMG that it plans to reevaluate its field testing procedures, claiming the kits are 99 percent accurate.
