CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County agreed to pay $550,000 to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed by former county budget director Maggie Keenan, who said officials fired her for repeatedly raising concerns about safety issues at the county jail and other misconduct.
Keenan sent emails to top county officials in April 2018, warning them of nursing shortages at the jail, according to her lawsuit. Within months, the first of nine inmates died during an 11-month span.
Keenan filed the lawsuit in June in U.S. District Court, about seven months after she was fired.
The settlement must be approved by Cuyahoga County Council, which is set to vote on it Tuesday. County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan declined to comment.
The county has so far paid $2.36 million to settle eight of 30 the lawsuits that have been filed over misconduct at the jail by top officials and jail guards. All of the lawsuits pertain to a period when inmates died at a historic rate, and while county officials carried out a plan to generate revenue by charging cities, including Cleveland, to house new arrests.
Gary Brack, a former MetroHealth employee who was in charge of nurses at the jail, previously settled a whistleblower lawsuit with the county for $99,000.
Keenan’s settlement is the second-largest so far. The county paid $950,000 to the family of Gregory Fox, an inmate who died by suicide in the jail.
Keenan’s lawsuit accused the county of firing her after she made several complaints about then-Jail...
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