Man sues over forced urine test for drugs

Friday, Aug. 14, 1998 | 10:28 a.m.

Robert Quinn of Reno, who tested negative for the drugs, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court based on his alleged treatment after his arrest for jaywalking on Nov. 26.

Police reported that Quinn was dancing and talking to himself while crossing the street, although Quinn denied that, according to the lawsuit filed this week.

Quinn said the officers detained him on suspicion of being on drugs. He said he denied being a drug user but agreed to provide a urine sample to prove his innocence.

However, when he was unable to urinate, the officers obtained a seizure order and took him to Washoe Medical Center where a catheter was inserted into his penis and urine extracted, the lawsuit said.

A Dec. 5 lab analysis of Quinn's urine showed him to be drug free, but he was not released from jail until Dec. 16 - 18 days after his initial arrest, the suit said.

Quinn filed suit against the officers and the city of Reno for the harm caused by the "painful penis catheterization stemming from his wrongful drug arrest," said his attorney, Terri Keyser-Cooper.

Quinn has been arrested three times for drug use but each time he was released after his test came up negative, she said.

Keyser-Cooper said she has three other suits pending on behalf of other men who say they were erroneously arrested in Reno's 4th Street corridor for drug use. None of those involved catheters.

"What is particularly outrageous is that the police arrest and use any phony thing they can to establish the person is on drugs," Keyser-Cooper told the Daily Sparks Tribune.

Keyser-Cooper, a civil rights attorney with other suits pending against the Washoe County Sheriff's office dealing with inmate's rights, said she is seeking injunctive relief from the court to end the police department's policy of stopping pedestrians on suspicion of drug use.

Reno Deputy Police Chief Jim Weston said his office has not had time to review Quinn's suit and could not comment on it specifically, but defended the department's efforts to identify drug users.

"This is typically what Keyser-Cooper does," Weston said. "She tries the case in the media before we have a chance to come up with a response."