IN TEXAS, IT WAS ASHES TO ASHES, THIS IS A BUST

SAN ANTONIO--Michael Anthony Horne has sued San Antonio for unspecified
damages after police jailed him on charges of possession of methamphetamine.
What he actually possessed was the ashes of his cremated grandmother.
After police said a field test showed the presence of the drug, Horne was
hauled away to jail for a month. Unable to make bail, he lost his job, his
pickup, his apartment and his military reserve status, he said. Subsequent
tests confirmed that the substance was indeed human remains, something Horne
had insisted since his arrest in July.

"It's in the police report that he told them that," said his attorney, Luis
Vera, after the suit was filed Thursday.

Horne, who had recently gotten out of the Army, was given the ashes by his
grandfather so he would always remember his late, cremated grandmother, and
had not yet taken them from his truck, Vera said. He said it was hard to
believe the police mistook the ashes for drugs because speed "looks like
baby powder," while the ashes were various shades of gray, white and black.

Vera said it also was important to lay to rest any doubts about Horne's
grandmother.

"Grandma wasn't a doper," he said.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett