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Milwaukee pays nearly $7 million to settle Terrill Thomas jail death lawsuit

Posted at 4:39 PM, May 28, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-28 17:39:38-04

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee County paid nearly $7 million to settle a lawsuit from the family of a man whose dehydration death in jail was described by his attorneys as torture.

Attorneys for 38-year-old Terrill Thomas called the settlement one of the largest ever in Wisconsin for a jail death. Tuesday was the first time they publicly announced the settlement, but it was finalized in March.

Police arrested Thomas on April 14, 2016, for shooting a man in front of his parents' house and later firing a gun inside a casino.

At the jail, Thomas had water to his cell shut off as punishmentbecause he had flooded his previous cell by stuffing a mattress in the toilet. The water was never turned back on, and he died a week later.