Comment on Lucas County to pay family, settle suit over inmate’s death

TOLEDO — A northern Ohio county will pay $750,000 to the family of a murder suspect who was found unresponsive in jail and later died in 2004. Officials agreed to the settlement earlier this week with the family of Carlton Benton who investigators said died after being beaten and put in a “sleeper hold” by deputies at the jail in Toledo. A former Lucas County sheriff’s office employee later was convicted of violating civil rights for leaving Benton in a cell without seeking medical help. The Blade reports the settlement also calls for the county to pay $500,000 in legal fees and expenses. Benton was in the jail on aggravated murder charges in the killings of a cousin and his cousin’s wife.