Wrongful arrest? Lawsuit charges that city’s Correction Department cuffed public defender on Rikers Island over incorrect claim of finding drugs

A Queens public defender, Bernardo Caceres, filed a federal lawsuit against the city's Department of Correction and correction officers' union, alleging wrongful arrest on Rikers Island after field tests falsely indicated THC traces in legal documents he brought to an incarcerated client. Subsequent lab tests confirmed no drugs were present, but the arrest caused emotional harm and disrupted Caceres' client's trial, delaying it by nearly a year.