Jailed 96 Days on Bogus Charge: It Is No One's Fault?

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Jailed 96 Days on Bogus Charge: It Is No One's Fault?

By JEFF AMY, ASSOCIATED PRESS ACKERMAN, Miss. — Oct 19, 2016, 4:28 AM ET

Pulled over for traffic violations, Jessica Jauch was held for 96 days in a Mississippi jail without seeing a judge, getting a lawyer or having a chance to make bail. She was charged with a felony based on a secretly recorded video that prosecutors finally acknowledged showed her committing no crime.

Only when she finally got a hearing and a lawyer, who persuaded prosecutors to watch the video, did the case fall apart.

Then, the 34-year-old mother sued, alleging violations of her rights to bail, legal representation, a speedy trial and liberty.

But a federal judge dismissed her case against Choctaw County and Sheriff Cloyd Halford last month, ruling that because she had been indicted by a grand jury on the felony drug charge, none of her constitutional and legal rights were violated.

The outcome has flummoxed civil liberties advocates who have been waging legal battles to reform Mississippi's criminal justice system, which provides almost no state funding for public defenders.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/jailed-96-days-bogus-charge-fault-42899046

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Any chance she is African-American and the prosecutors white? . . . . nt

[aaaaaa5a]

2. The victim is white. I don't know the race of the prosecutors or judge.

The criminal justice system and our police force needs desperate reform and changes for all of our citizens.

[metroins]

3. She seems to be white

Not sure why race would matter at all.

Personally, I agree with the federal judge, if a grand jury indicted her, her cuck liberties were not violated.

It's not like one cop arrested Jessica, then left her in jail, there was an investigation and some due process.

I guess the only thing I have a problem with is the amount of time.

[Brickbat]

4. No.

[TheOther95Percent]

5. Class is the issue. She was without means to hire a private attorney.

The woman's civil rights were not denied - according to the federal judge - because she received procedural due process. For example, she was indicted by a grand jury. Substantive due process, ah not so much. There was a videotape of the alleged felony which no one involved in the case bothered to watch. This woman was incarcerated for 96 days at a cost to the taxpayers at X, which is probably more than a public defender would cost.

[The Wizard]

6. People without resources

are easy targets for crooked law enforcement officials.
The state police here had an unwritten rule to pull over single occupied older vehicles as they were less likely to afford a lawyer ,and there are no witnesses. It was an easy arrest and conviction to bolster their records and gain promotions, essentially putting a bounty on the innocent and most vulnerable. In a word, immoral.

[Pakid]

7. Grand Jurys

leave a lot to be desired since the person who is indicted is almost never there to mount a defense. This case clearly shows how flawed the Grand jury system can be. No one should have to spend 96 days in jail with out seeing a lawyer and having a bail hearing that in itself should have been grounds for a winnable lawsuit. What happens when she say loses her job has her kids perhaps taken away etc. That potential harm that was done to this innocent person or any other person should never be allowed to happen. Last I looked you were presumed innocent until prove guilty. She spends 96 days in jail and a man who rapes his own daughter gets sentenced to 60 days in jail by a judge in another case I just read about the other day. Justice may be blind but it should not also be deaf, dumb and incredibly stupid.

[freebrew]

8. It's why they call it the...

CRIMINAL Justice System.