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Lawsuit: Man Held In Sacramento Jail For 27 Days With No Charges

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A man said he spent 27 days in the Sacramento County Jail without being charged or making a court appearance.

Taylor Brophy was arrested for DUI in March 2019, but claims in a lawsuit he was lost in the system for almost a month with no idea what was going on in his case. Brophy claims other inmates heard his case called by a judge, but Brophy was not there to answer.

"We don't know all the facts yet, but from what we're hearing first hand, it's really scary," Sacramento attorney Mark Reichel said about the case.

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Reichel said everyone, no matter the circumstance, is entitled to be seen and heard by a judge in a timely manner.

"Ordinarily in California, 99 percent of the time on a first time DUI, as soon as you're sober enough, you're out the door. They don't have places to hold you so they do want you out of there," Reichel said.

Brophy is suing Sacramento County for damages, claiming he "suffered financial loss, extreme emotional distress, mental anguish — and damage to his reputation."

The lawsuit claims when Brophy was tested, his blood-alcohol level was not above the legal limit.

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The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office, which runs the jails Brophy was held in, could not comment on pending court matters, but a spokesperson said charges other than the DUI were at play during Brophy's time in jail. She said he may have owed time for a past conviction on unrelated charges.

"When you have a system this big, with this many people, that functions of this level at times chaos these types of things are going to happen," Reichel said.

When Brophy was released, he claims he was given no reason or explanation of why he was kept in jail. His attorney could not be reached for comment Monday night.

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