Last of 70 arrested during party bonds out
CARTERSVILLE, Ga. - It was supposed to a be a birthday party for a woman turning 21, instead, 70 people were hauled off to jail. Officers charged all 70 with having less than an ounce of marijuana, but there is confusion over how much drugs police actually found. Now the NAACP is demanding answers.
"They put us in this one place called the shoe and it's like the water was rusty. We drank the water and it made your stomach hurt," said Sirandon Marshall, who was arrested at the party.
Marshall said he was the last of 70 partygoers who finally bonded out of the Bartow County Jail after a party Deja Heard threw herself for her 21st birthday.
The Cartersville and Georgia NAACP said they are concerned that all the young people's civil rights were violated.
Mr. Marshall, 22, also alleges deplorable conditions in the jail where he claims he was denied showers, a toothbrush, and a cot on which to sleep.
"Inhumanely, like animals," Marshall said in response to how he felt he was treated at the jail. "They put us in a room, I walk in the room and I'm like 'Yo, it's p--- on the floor.' He said 'So?' It was girl's hair on the floor. They gave us food on a napkin. Talking about eat. I'm like 'Bro, it's p--- and hair on the floor, where am I going to eat?'"
Cartersville Police said they responded to a call of shots fired in the vicinity of the house party that happened here on Cain Drive. In their report, officers stated they smelled marijuana and saw some weed, no amount was specified, in plain view.
They also released these pictures of a semi-automatic handgun and other evidence they said came from the scene before arresting Heard, her sister Tiffanique Irby, Marshall, and 67 others.
Heard's mom called it "a nightmare that has not ended." She agreed many people came to the party her daughter did not know or invite, but she said Carterville Police and the Bartow County Jail officials took things too far.
"They kept them there, they denied them a phone call. They didn't tell them why they were being arrested," said Glinda Heard.
Officials said they would look into the allegations about the jail conditions, but no still no word on how much marijuana was located inside the home.
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