New York to pay homeless Marine veteran's family $2.25 million

New York City to pay $2.25M to the family of mentally ill homeless veteran who 'baked to death' in his Rikers Island jail cell
By ASSOCIATED PRESS and MAIL ONLINE REPORTER
31 October 2014

Loss: Former marine Jerome Murdough, 56, died in a mental observation unit on Rikers Island jail on February 15, eight days after he was sent to the facility charged with trespassing

Jerome Murdough, 56, had internal body temperature of at least 100 degrees when he was found dead in a cell in Rikers Island on February 15
Murdough was arrested a week earlier for trespassing after being found sleeping in an internal stairwell on the roof of a Harlem apartment complex
City officials said inmate's anti-psychotic medications made him more sensitive to heat and he also failed to open a vent in his cell

New York City has reached a $2.25 million settlement with the family of a mentally ill, homeless former U.S. Marine who died earlier this year in a 101-degree jail cell, the comptroller said Friday.

Jerome Murdough, 56, died in a mental observation unit on Rikers Island jail on February 15, eight days after he was sent to the facility because he couldn't afford to pay $2,500 bail on a trespassing arrest.

He was found slumped at the foot of his bed with a pool of vomit and blood on the floor and an internal body temperature of 103 degrees. Officials said he wasn't checked on for at least four hours and 'basically baked to death.'

His mother, Alma, filed initial papers to sue the city for $25 million over her son's death. But Comptroller Scott Stringer said Friday his office took the unusual step of settling the case before a lawsuit was filed after a review of the facts of the case.
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Homeless Veteran Baked To Death in New York Jail Cell