Family of man killed in US jail after being given no water for a week awarded $6.75m

It's the largest settlement of its kind in the state's history

The children of Terrill Thomas, the man who died in a Milwaukee jail in 2016 after correction officers left him without water for a week, will receive $6.75m in a settlement.

The amount will be paid by Milwaukee County and Armor Correctional Health Services, the private company that provided health care for the jail.

Mr Thomas was arrested in April of 2016 on charges that he had a shot a man. He was brought to Milwaukee County Jail, where he was placed in isolation after blocking his cell’s toilet to cause a flood.

As punishment, jail lieutenant Kashka Meadors told correctional officer James Ramsey-Guy to turn off the water supply to the new cell.

Mr Thomas was found dead one week later, just nine days after his arrest. The death was later ruled a homicide. He was 38.

In 2018, Meadors pleaded no contest to a felony charge of prisoner abuse and was sentenced to 60 days in prison. In March of this year, Ramsey-Guy was sentenced to 30 days in prison on a charge of abusing a resident of a penal facility, which is also a felony.

Nancy Evans, a jail commander, pleaded no contest in February to misconduct in office, a felony, and was sentenced to nine months of what was expected to be house arrest. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, she is thought to have lied repeatedly during the investigation.

According to Eric Heipt, a lawyer for the Mr Thomas’s estate, the settlement is the largest of its kind in Wisconsin history.

Mr Thomas’s death occurred while Milwaukee County Jail was run by David A. Clarke Jr., a supporter of Donald Trump who spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention, where Mr Trump accepted the party’s nomination.

His time running the jail is marked by four deaths, including Mr Thomas’s. A newborn baby, born “unbeknownst” to the staff, according to a lawsuit, was also among the deaths.