URINE TEST SETS OFF A DISPUTE AND LANDS A MAN IN JAIL

BRADENTON - Little Sam Rich was free on bail awaiting sentencing in
a drug case when a judge ordered him locked up after a urine test.

There were trace amounts of cocaine and marijuana in his system, but
something else caught the judge's eye and convinced her that Rich had
tried to cheat the system: his "abnormal" level of a chemical called
creatinine.

Creatinine is a natural by-product of chemical reactions in muscle.
Doctors look at creatinine levels to determine kidney functioning. But
creatinine is also carefully watched by the courts as a measure of
dilution in a urine sample.

A person who drinks a lot of water before a urine test will likely
show low levels of creatinine, experts say, and in the world of drug
courts, an abnormally low level of the chemical is considered a
positive drug test.

"Creatinine is not, of course, an illegal substance," said Rich's
attorney, Charles M. Britt III, who urged Circuit Judge Debra Johnes
Riva to free Rich from jail at a hearing last week. "There is nothing
out there showing he ever did anything wrong. We are basing this all
on a lot of assumptions."

Riva was not moved. Riva said she had to put public safety first and
was concerned Rich had been out using drugs while awaiting sentencing.
Drug use leads to crime, she said. Riva ordered Rich held in custody
until he is sentenced in his drug case this month.

But Rich likely will not be prosecuted for trying to defraud a urine
test -- a misdemeanor -- because there is no solid evidence he tried
to cheat. Britt said Rich is a landscaper who naturally drinks lots of
water.

It was not immediately known whether the trace amounts of cocaine and
marijuana will be enough to violate his probation in a previous drug
case. Riva did not mention the trace amounts in her written order
demanding that he be held in custody.

Prosecution of fake urine cases, or attempts to defraud the system,
are rare. In most cases, a person will be hit with violating probation
and will not have a whole new criminal case, said William J. High, who
heads the Manatee County probation office.

Over the years, High said, probation officers have seen it all: from
fake male genitalia to water tainted yellow by food coloring. Sterile
urine is sold on the Internet.

High recalled a case in which a person used a friend's urine to take a
test. That urine came back positive for drugs. The probationer was
outraged.

In one pending case, a Bradenton woman, Latesha Spurlock, was caught
in October with a plastic bottle containing urine, Bradenton police
say.

A state probation officer, who was monitoring the urine test, said she
was suspicious and ordered Spurlock to stand up. When she did, the
bottle dropped to the floor, according to police reports.

Spurlock, 27, was arrested and jailed.

The charge of defrauding a test is punishable by up to a year in
jail.

Sal Rizzo, a probation officer for Manatee County, said in court that
people who spend money on products to dupe the system are being robbed.

Water, he said, is the best way to cleanse the body. Rizzo did not
encourage probationers to cheat, however.

Drinking lots of water, Rizzo said, testifying at Rich's hearing,
"literally makes it look like they have nothing in them."

But, in Rich's case, too much water may have aroused suspicion of the
courts.

Britt, the defense attorney, said Rich did not have a chance to dilute
his system because he took a drug test immediately after taking a plea
deal in his drug case.

"We're assuming the worst of him, but he's done everything asked of
him," Britt said. "That test can mean a whole lot of things. It could
mean bad things. It could mean nothing."