Maricopa County is set to approve a multimillion-dollar settlement for the in-custody jail death of a man in the throes of a mental health crisis.
The Board of Supervisors will vote to give $4,050,000 to the family of Akeem Terrell at their upcoming meeting.
Akeem Terrell died after he was placed and left in a prone position while handcuffed by Phoenix police and Maricopa County Sheriff’s detention officers.
“There was no reason for him to die,” said Jesse Showalter, an attorney who represented Terrell’s family, when he first filed a lawsuit. “He should not have died. He came into the jail alive, and what these officers did left him dead.”
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Maricopa County’s settlement is in addition to $800,000 that the City of Phoenix previously approved for its officers’ role.
On January 1, 2021, Terrell began behaving strangely at a party with witnesses reporting that he was being paranoid and not making any sense, according to police records and body camera video.