Woman Says Constitutional Rights Were Violated Because She Was Jailed For Months Without Seeing A Judge

ABERDEEN/CHOCTAW CO., Miss. (AP) – A Mississippi woman is appealing a federal judge’s decision that her being jailed for 96 days without seeing a judge didn’t violate her constitutional rights.

A lawyer for Jessica Jauch filed notice in federal court in Aberdeen, Mississippi, this week that she would appeal U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock’s dismissal of a lawsuit against Choctaw County and Sheriff Cloyd Halford. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would next hear Jauch’s case.

Jauch was jailed in Choctaw County in 2012 after being indicted after being accused of selling drugs, though a police video showed she had committed no crime. She was cleared after her lawyer persuaded a prosecutor to drop the charge.

Aycock ruled that because Jauch had been indicted, she had no right to a quick hearing or bail.