NEW YORK (AP) - A New York City official says a settlement of more than $2 million has been reached with the family of a mentally ill, homeless former Marine who died in a 101-degree jail cell.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer made the announcement Friday.
Fifty-six-year-old Jerome Murdough died in a mental observation unit about a week after he was sent to Rikers Island jail on a trespassing arrest. Officials said he wasn't checked on for at least four hours. He was found slumped at the foot of his bed with a pool of vomit and blood on the floor on Feb. 15 with an internal body temperature of 103 degrees.
His mother, Alma, had filed a notice of claim, the first procedural step necessary for her wrongful-death lawsuit.
Prosecutors are investigating Murdough's death.
(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
