El Paso County commissioners have agreed to pay $85,000 to the widow and daughters of Bruce R. Howard, a Fountain man who died of heart problems in a courthouse holding cell in 2008.
The payment settles a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Georgeanna Howard and daughters Lorraine Welhouse and Robin Ashton.
“I’d rather wish it never happened,” said Georgeanna Howard, who was told about the settlement offer on May 3. “I miss him dearly.”
El Paso County officials admitted that the panic alarm located in the so-called “fish tank,” where inmates wait prior to court appearances, was not working on Nov. 10, 2008, the day Bruce Howard died.
The Gazette reviewed a black and white security video of the holding cell and determined it took 17 minutes and 22 seconds for paramedics to tend to Howard, who died of cardiac arrhythmia.
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