Posted: Aug 29, 2012 9:03 AM by AP
PHOENIX (AP) - A woman who says she sat in a jail cell for more than 40 minutes with a garbage bag over her head before any deputy took action, has filed a $6.2 million lawsuit against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
The Arizona Republic reports that 44-year-old Angela Chavez-Metzger claims in the lawsuit that she faced substandard treatment during her late-February jail stay because she is Latina.
Sheriff's Deputy Chief Jack MacIntyre said a review of the incident left sheriff's officials with the impression that Chavez-Metzger was using the garbage bag for warmth. He criticized the decision of Chavez-Metzger's attorney to "play the race card" when the bag would have obscured her ethnicity.
Chavez-Metzger had been booked on suspicion of assaulting her husband. The charge was later dismissed.
Comments