From [HERE] The family of a mentally ill man who died after being held in controversial Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio's custody filed a civil lawsuit on Tuesday alleging that detention staff taunted, beat and shocked the man with a stun gun in violation of his rights.

The suit was brought in state court by the family of Ernest "Marty" Atencio. It claimed that he was assaulted after he was booked into a Maricopa County lockup in Phoenix on December 15. He collapsed and died five days later. The lawsuit also names other plaintiffs including Maricopa County, the city of Phoenix and several individuals. It was caught on routine jail video tape. 

The claim alleges that excessive force, coupled with a series of failures by medical professionals to tend to  Atencio, contributed to the 44-year-old's death in December. He was a mentally ill Gulf War veteran.

Atencio had been in police custody for over four hours and had been showing signs of “acute psychosis,” the medical examiner reports. The video appears to show burly officers from Phoenix and Maricopa County piling on Atencio, apparently after he said something, though exactly what remains unclear because jail cameras don’t record audio. Atencio died four days after he was removed from a "safe cell" in the Fourth Avenue Jail. Atencio is at least the 12th inmate to die under strange circumstances in the Maricopa County jail system. (The Phoenix New Times lists 11 other such cases here.) 

 The notice of claim (Contains graphic images)