Daniel Chong, a University of California San Diego student, was held by the Drug Enforcement Administration for four days without food or water after a drug raid in April 2012. The Justice Department has reportedly agreed to pay him $4.1 million for the ordeal.
According to Associated Press sources, the settlement is expected to officially be announced in a news conference. The news comes a day after Chong’s attorney, Eugene Iredale, said that there would be “an important development” Tuesday, a year after he filed a $20 million lawsuit.
NBC 7 San Diego reports that Chong had been detained after celebrating 4/20 at a friend’s house with marijuana. After he was detained and even told by agents that he wouldn’t be charged with a crime, he was forgotten about for four days and said he had to drink his own urine to survive in the 5-by-10-foot cell.
“I had to do what I had to do to survive,” chong told NBC 7 last year. “It’s so inconceivable. You keep doubting they would forget you.”
The AP notes that at one point, Chong nearly gave up and accepted that he would die. He said he had broken his glasses to carve “Sorry Mom” and finished the “s.”
The DEA spokesman and the Justice Department did not comment on the news. When they did eventually find Chong and released him, the DEA did issued a formal apology.