The Tucson Citizen
PHOENIX — The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will pay $1 million to the family of a man who died while in custody of the Sheriff’s Office.
Juan Farias Mendoza died in 2007 after a physical exchange with detention officers in one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails, according to a notice of claim obtained by The Arizona Republic. The claim named the Sheriff’s Office and the county’s Correctional Health Services agency, which is responsible for inmate health care, in Mendoza’s death, which it deemed wrongful.
The supervisors approved the payout without discussion at a formal meeting Wednesday.
Arpaio said the settlement was the cost of doing business.
“It was settled due to the nature of doing business,” he said. “That (settlement) wasn’t up to us, that was the county that decided to settle it. We have nothing to do with this. We never like to lose anybody in jail, but we have … 300,000 (inmates) come through our jails since I’ve been sheriff. Sometimes you have people that pass away.”
Full Story: County set to pay $1 million over death in Arpaio jail