$212,500 Settlement Reached over Arrest for Buying Bottled Water

A $212,500 settlement has been reached in the case of a University of Virginia student who was swarmed by undercover officers who mistakenly thought she had purchased beer at a local supermarket.

Attorney General Mark R. Herring announced Wednesday that Elizabeth Daly, who filed a $40 million federal lawsuit against agents with the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, will receive $212,500. Daly will also receive a letter from the Alcoholic Beverage Control board explaining the circumstances of her arrest that she can present to future employers, The Associated Press reports.

Daly, who was 20 years old at the time of the incident, sued the state and seven ABC agents after she was arrested in 2013 when agents mistook a carton of sparkling water for beer.

The agents allegedly demanded Daly open the window of her Chevrolet TrailBlazer and said not to start the engine. One agent allegedly tried to break a window in Daly’s SUV with a flashlight and another drew his gun. Daly alleged the agents’ badges were not clearly visible and one of the two passengers shouted that the badges were fake before telling the driver to “go, go, go,” according to the lawsuit.

Daly was charged with three felonies including one count of eluding police and two counts of assaulting a police officer after her SUV “grazed” two of the agents as she drove away. Daly pulled over moments after a 911 dispatcher informed her that the agents were in fact law enforcement officers.

Daley spent one night and an afternoon in the Albermarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.

“My goal throughout this case has been to reach a resolution that is just and fair for all parties, including Ms. Daly, the ABC and its agents, and the Commonwealth and its taxpayers,” Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring said in a statement. “After careful consideration of the potentially significant costs of taking this case to trial, I believe we have reached such an outcome.”

Herring said the settlement did was not an admission of wrongdoing by any of the parties involved.


Image: Wikimedia Commons