Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone admits officers made mistakes in jail death

By Dave Biscobing

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    PHOENIX (KNXV) — In response to an ABC15 investigation into an in-custody death, Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone admitted detention officers made mistakes that need to be addressed.

Penzone also criticized ABC15 for its reporting on Akeem Terrell’s death, calling the coverage “exploitive.”

“As we look at it, are there things we could have should have done different? Anytime there’s a loss of life in our jail, there is likely something that should have been done differently,” the sheriff told KTAR News 92.3FM during an interview Tuesday.

He later added, “When I see how it was handled, there are absolutely areas that we need to be conscientious and improve on.”

The sheriff’s office declined to comment to ABC15 ahead of the station’s series on the death last week.

MCSO released the following emailed statement:

We do not comment on pending litigation. Please submit a FOIA for any records you wish to obtain, and they will be released when available.

Terrell died on January 1, 2021. His family filed a federal lawsuit earlier this year.

ABC15’s reports focused on the role of Phoenix police and MCSO officers in the death of Terrell, a man in a mental health crisis picked up for trespassing, and the unusual way the two agencies handled the resulting homicide investigation.

Phoenix PD and MCSO agreed to split the investigation and decided not to interview each other’s officers.

KTAR asked the sheriff whether splitting the investigation was appropriate.

“In that case, I have seen the video. I try to stay out of the investigations because I feel like if I get involved, I don’t want to influence my agency or another on the course of their investigation,” Penzone said. “I want it to be untainted.”

In response to KTAR’s questions about the Terrell death, Penzone spent much of his time criticizing coverage of the case.

The sheriff did not dispute specific facts but rather how the reports were told.

“And when a journalist is so committed to not expose but exploit, then I think it does a disservice. This was a tragedy that needs to be vetted out, cleared up, and never happen again, whatever that means. But aggressive exploitive journalism doesn’t make it more of a tragedy. It’s just a tragedy,” Penzone said.

More than two years after the death, both MCSO and Phoenix police have not completed internal disciplinary investigations into the officers involved.

Both agencies are under federal scrutiny for how they police themselves. Penzone is under contempt of court for problems with MCSO’s internal investigations, and Phoenix is under a sweeping Department of Justice probe.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office cleared officers of criminal wrongdoing in Terrell’s death in late 2021.

When asked about his response to videos showing the condition in which officers left Terrell, Penzone said he didn’t see anything malicious.

“What I didn’t see was detention officers trying to do harm,” he said. “It was just the lack of action that did harm.”

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