Widow Alleges Cover-up in Arpaio’s Jail

PHOENIX (CN) - After her husband was beaten to death in jail, one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's employees altered records "to delete reference to the 'Aryan Nation,'" the inmate's widow says. The widow says her husband was not a member of the white supremacist group, but his cellmate and alleged killer had warned jail officers, "I'm not gonna be housed with anyone that's Aryan."

Wietse ten Boden, a Dutch citizen and permanent resident of the United States, was "brutally assaulted" by his cellmate, Lamont Rider, on June 4, 2010 in the Lower Buckeye Jail, his widow claims in Maricopa County Court. "(H)e died days later as a result of blunt impact injuries of the head."

Cielo ten Boden says that Rider had requested "administrative segregation from 'Aryan Nation' inmates. He also told officers: 'I'm not gonna be housed with anyone that's Aryan.' Lamont Rider reported to the classification officer that he fears the 'Aryan Nation.' During his incarceration, Lamont Rider made additional comments indicating hatred of the 'Aryan Brotherhood,'" according to the complaint.

Ten Boden says her husband "had no affiliation with either the 'Aryan Nation' or the 'Aryan Brotherhood,'" but detention officers "knew or should have known that Lamont Rider would consider Wietse ten Boden to be 'Aryan'" because he was "a white inmate and spoke with a European accent."

Jail officers put Rider and ten Boden in the same cell, though the officers should have been "trained that 'Aryan' refers to white inmates" and "to recognize the potential for violence when an individual who expresses a racial fear or racial animus is housed with 'another race,'" the widow says.

She says her late husband "activated the emergency button from his cell, alerting officers that he felt endangered" at 3:50 a.m. on June 4, 2010. A few minutes later, officers found ten Boden "brutally assaulted, unconscious, and struggling to breathe."

"Following the attack, an employee of the Maricopa County Sheriff's office altered Lamont Rider's classification records to delete reference to the 'Aryan Nation," the complaint states.

Cielo ten Boden seeks damages for negligence and wrongful death. She is represented by Joel Robbins and Anne Findling with Robbins & Curtin.

(The decedent's first name apparently is misspelled throughout the complaint, as Weitse. It is spelled Wietse in government documents."

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