Sheriff touts successes in defending lawsuits
May. 29, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office gets negative publicity when it settles multimillion-dollar lawsuits, so the law-enforcement agency should get praised when juries find in favor of the department, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said at a Wednesday news conference.

The office has paid out more than $30.5 million in verdicts and claims to defendants and their attorneys since Arpaio took office in 1993, but a string of seven jury verdicts that have come down in favor of the Sheriff's Office, including one this week, had Arpaio touting his tactics.

Arpaio said 117 inmates have died in county custody since he took office.

"I've been accused by (attorney Michael) Manning and other critics who say I cultivate a culture of cruelty in our jails," Arpaio said. "There is no culture of cruelty in our jails."

A federal jury on Tuesday determined that a sheriff's detention officer did not use excessive force against Thomas Stewart, an inmate who claimed an officer abused him in a 2002 encounter.

At the briefing Wednesday, Arpaio mentioned repeatedly Phoenix attorney Manning, a nemesis who has regularly sued the county over the treatment of inmates. Arpaio implied that the lawyer was motivated by personal attacks on the sheriff.

Manning said the rulings against and settlements on behalf of the county were proof that something is amiss in the Sheriff's Office. He was not involved in the latest case.

"When jurors hear and see that this sheriff has actually promoted the notion of abusing and even taking the lives of vulnerable inmates, juries are going to react to that," Manning said. "Insurance companies are going to react to that."

Manning has won several court victories and settlements against the Sheriff's Office during Arpaio's tenure, including a $2 million settlement with the county in January to resolve the wrongful death claim of Brian Crenshaw, who died after a fight with a detention officer.

Manning also won a record $8.25 million settlement against the Sheriff's Office in 1996 after Scott Norberg died in a restraint chair.

Arpaio said such large settlements were the product of the county's nervous insurance providers and risk managers who do not always have the nerve for a court fight.


The county Board of Supervisors did settle two claims against the Sheriff's Office this year, for a total of $925,000, including an $800,000 settlement in the case of a 28-year-old man who died of a heart attack while in custody.


While those cases might be defensible, county administrators have to weigh the cost of the trial for taxpayers against the cost of a potential settlement, said Peter Crowley, Maricopa County's risk manager.





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