Dead prisoner's family sues Maricopa, Arpaio

Clint Yarbrough's parents and children allege that he died in December 2005 after he was buckled into the chair at the Fourth Avenue Jail here.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio removed restraint chairs from county jails in August. The controversial devices had been used since the 1970s and have been blamed for three deaths in the past decade and have cost the county millions in legal expenses.

The suit filed Tuesday also names the Sheriff's Department, the county supervisors and Maricopa County Correctional Health Services. Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Paul Chagolla said the department "has retained counsel and will defend its interests vigorously."

The suit doesn't list an amount for compensation but, as a precursor to the lawsuit, Yarbrough's family filed a $15 million claim against the county.

Authorities said Yarbrough, 33, had methamphetamine in his system when he walked into a Phoenix convenience store in December 2005 and asked the store clerk to call 911 because he felt sick.

When police arrived and tried to pull him to the ground, Yarbrough resisted. He was taken to jail and put into a restraint chair, according to the lawsuit. The suit says Yarbrough died because the Sheriff's Department violated its own procedures.

It also says no doctor was consulted before Yarbrough was confined to a chair, as required under county rules, and jail medical personnel failed to monitor him.

Arpaio has said the two previous deaths were caused by methamphetamine, not the restraint chair.

In 1999, the county agreed to pay $8.25 million to the family of a 33-year-old inmate who died in 1996 after he was put into a restraint chair.

A federal jury awarded $9 million in March to the family of a 33-year-old mentally retarded man who died in 2001 after he was strapped in a restraint chair. The county plans to appeal that verdict.