Maricopa County OKs $300,000 settlement in 2015 death in jail
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has approved a $300,000 settlement for the family of a 27-year-old man, Anthony Singleton, who died in one of then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails after suffering opiate and alcohol withdrawals.
The five-member board on Wednesday approved the taxpayer money to be dispersed to Singleton’s mother and three children, who were 8, 6 and 3 years old at the time of his death in 2015.
“Anthony Singleton’s death is a tragedy,” said Fields Moseley, a spokesman for the county. “Maricopa County and its Board of Supervisors hope this settlement allows his family to move forward and the county to continue focusing on improving its complex jail system that sees approximately 100-thousand people every year.”
As part of Singleton’s settlement, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office won’t admit any wrongdoing, and Singleton’s family will drop a lawsuit they filed in Superior Court in November 2016. Current Sheriff Paul Penzone was named as a defendant in the suit, even though the death occurred during Arpaio’s tenure.
According to the complaint, Singleton was booked into jail on Oct. 21, 2015, on a bench warrant connected to a drug case.
The lawsuit says that Singleton had a history of alcohol and opiate withdrawals that resulted in seizures.
He requested medical care, but jail authorities dismissed his cry for help as “faking,” the lawsuit says.
On Nov. 4, 2015, jail staff found Singleton kneeling in his cell with his head on his bunk, the lawsuit says. He had vomited blood, and there were “black tarry stools” on the floor of his cell, the lawsuit says.
Arpaio had largely blamed preexisting medical conditions for inmates’ incustody jail deaths.
His critics, however, said the deaths represented the cruel treatment inmates received during Arpaio’s time as sheriff.
This settlement is the latest cost to county taxpayers stemming from an incustody death during Arpaio’s time as sheriff. Previous Arpaio in-custody, jaildeath settlements range from $2 million to $9 million:
❚ $7 million paid in March to the family of Ernest Atencio. The 44-year-old died in 4th Avenue Jail after officers allegedly punched and shot him with a stun gun when he refused to take off a shoe in 2011. In June, the City of Phoenix awarded Atencio’s family $250,000 in a separate settlement stemming from the same case.
❚ $2 million to the family of Clint Yarbrough in 2007.
❚ $7.6 million to the family of 33year-old Charles Agster, who died in August 2001 after he was buckled into a restraint chair while being booked into a Maricopa County jail. According to a lawsuit, Yarbrough walked into a Phoenix convenience store in December 2005 and asked the clerk to call 911 because he felt ill. He resisted police when they tried to pull him to the ground, and he was strapped into a restraint chair when he got to the Fourth Avenue Jail.
❚ $8.25 million paid in 1999 to the family of Scott Norberg, 35, who died June 1, 1996, during a struggle with detention officers in the Madison Street Jail. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office said his death was caused by “positional asphyxia” after he was forced into a metal restraint chair, his mouth gagged and his head forced into his chest during a struggle with detention officers.