PHOENIX (AP) - Maricopa County has agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a lawsuit by a former inmate in one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jails who claimed her rights were violated in 2009 when officers restrained her before and after she gave birth to her son at a hospital.
The deal reached Thursday to settle Miriam Mendiola-Martinez's lawsuit came nearly three weeks before the case was scheduled for a trial.
Joy Bertrand, Mendiola-Martinez's attorney, says Arpaio also agreed to prohibit officers from restraining inmates while they're in labor and for the two weeks after they deliver their children.
Mendiola-Martinez wasn't restrained during her C-section.
But after giving birth, she was brought to a recovery room and had to wear a leg restraint with a chain attached to it.
