State Official’s Daughters Sue Over Detainment

Two daughters of Brian Taugher, a top state Justice Department official found innocent last January of sexually molesting one of their girlfriends at a birthday slumber party, have filed a lawsuit against Sacramento County.

The suit, which does not specify the amount of damages sought, alleges that the Taugher girls suffered emotionally and physically when they were taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies immediately after their father’s arrest a year ago.

Taugher, 38, was arrested last July, nearly two weeks after a slumber party held at his home to celebrate his youngest daughter’s birthday. He was charged with one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a 9-year-old girl, but he was acquitted after a monthlong trial and 5 1/2 days of jury deliberation.

The sisters charged that they were held against their will for 12 hours at a children’s receiving home, strip-searched, deloused and repeatedly interrogated about their father.

They also charged that they were forced to endure allegations by county employees that their father was a child molester, told that authorities had evidence to prove the molestation occurred, and that their father was a sick man who needed drugs.

Taugher’s estranged wife, Sandy, filed the suit on behalf of her daughters in the wake of a $1-million claim she filed against the county last April, which was rejected.

Sacramento County Counsel L. B. Elam had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.

Taugher family attorney Wade R. Thompson claimed that the treatment of the girls, ages 9 and 16 at the time of their detainment, was “horrible, Gestapo-like.”

Taugher, a special assistant to Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, said he will “support the girls in any action they take,” although he would “hate to speculate on the outcome of the case.”

Thompson said the girls were in custody for more than 12 hours even though Taugher contacted his estranged wife about the situation shortly after his release from custody.

When she called the receiving home, Thompson said, she was informed that the girls could not be released to her because she could not prove that she had legal custody. She picked them up 10 hours later.