In Texas, It Was Ashes to Ashes, This Is a Bust

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.