WAS BAG GRANNY'S REMAINS OR DOPE

Courts: Man sues authorities who initially mistook woman's cremated ashes
for an illegal substance.

San Antonio- It's a federal court lawsuit, but it could be the lyrics of a
sad country Western song.

Too sleepy to drive, Michael Anthony Horne pulled off a San Antonio roadway
on July 30, 1997, for a nap.

A suspicious San Antonio patrolman stopped and searched the vehicle and
Horne, who was arrested for possession of a powdery substance.

Horne was jailed. He lost his job, his pickup, his apartment, his military
reserve status.

And some of his grandmother's cremated remains.

Despite Horn's protests that authorities were making a terrible mistake,
the plastic bag that contained his grandmother's ashes was field tested for
methamphetamine.

Grandma passed, but Horne was sent to jail.

Horne, of San Antonio, on Thursday filed a federal court lawsuit seeking
unspecified damages.

Unable to make bail, Horne was jailed for about a month before the case was
dismissed because the contents of the bag proved to be his grandmother's
remains and not illicit drugs, according to his lawyer, Luis Vera.

Assistant City Attorney Amy Eubanks said the city handles arrests and is
not responsible for decisions to prosecute or when someone is released from
jail.

The field test for methamphetmine, sought by the arresting officer Michael
Katsfey, was positive, Eubanks added.

Vera said the search was illegal and Horne told the officers the bag
contained the ashes of his grandmother. 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.

"It's in the police report that he told them that," Vera said.

The lawyer said he wanted to know more about the field test, because either
"someone's lying or I have got a case against the manufacturer of the test,
too."

Vera said the ashes were tested twice after the field test. Both tests were
negative.

"After the second test, they finally dismissed the case and let him go,"
Vera said.

"The sand thing is, most of his grandmother's remains are gone now (because
of the testing)," Vera said. "He can't get that back."

The lawsuit alleges that police violated Horne's constitutional rights and
denied him due process of the law.

Vera said it was also important to lay to rests any doubts about Horne's
grandmother. "Grandma wasn't a doper," he said.