Citing "credible information from a reliable source," New Mexico authorities got a search warrant describing, apparently with some particularity, a 19-year-old Las Cruces woman who their source claimed was smuggling heroin. The woman was detained and taken to Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, where a body-cavity search was performed.
You aren't reading this here just because they failed to find anything. You are reading it because the hospital then billed her $1,122 for the unsuccessful cavity search.
Not surprisingly, the woman demanded that the police pay for the mistake. She hasn't sued, at least not yet - and they do seem to have had a warrant for this search, which is nice - but she did want them to pay at least the costs of the search. After initially refusing, yesterday police said they would in fact pay the bill.
I guess the one truly surprising thing about this to me is that a cavity search costs over $1100, but I suppose this is not something especially subject to the laws of supply and demand.
