Kathleen.Miles@huffingtonpost.com
An undercover police officer tricked a teenager with autism into buying pot for him, a lawsuit filed by the boy’s parents alleges.
The 17-year-old, who isn’t named in the lawsuit, was arrested with 21 other high school students on drug-dealing charges as part of a sting operation last December at Chaparral High School in Temecula, Calif. His parents, Catherine and Doug Snodgrass, on Wednesday announced a lawsuit in state Superior Court that seeks unspecified damages from the Temecula Valley School District, alleging negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“Certain parts of my son have been damaged in ways that I think will be permanent,” Doug Snodgrass told The Huffington Post.
According to the Snodgrasses, a police officer pretended to be their son’s friend, which pleased them because he has trouble making friends. When the couple suggested inviting this new friend home, the friend “would always have an excuse, saying he couldn’t or he was grounded,” Catherine Snodgrass said. The parents said they later learned the “friend” was Deputy Daniel Zipperstein of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, who was posing as a student named Daniel Briggs for several months at their son’s school.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/31/cop-autistic-teen-pot_n_4178746.html