Gene "Chad" Beason
Gene "Chad" Beason, 40, died by hanging in his cell at the Gila County Jail in Globe on December 25, 2018. His sister Kimberly Pope remembers good times they shared, including a 2018 trip to Tombstone and riding motorcycles together, and his father Gordon Beason said he struggled with mental illness and drugs and left behind children. The Gila County Sheriff's Office said its internal investigation, which it attributed the death to suicide, found that detention officers walked past his cell several times without checking on him while a blanket covered the door, contrary to jail policy. His family filed a notice of claim calling the death preventable and says the discipline and policy changes that followed came too late.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide (disputed; neglect alleged). The sheriff's office internal investigation says Beason hanged himself, and found detention officers walked past his cell several times without checking while a blanket covered the door, against jail policy; his family filed a notice of claim calling the death preventable.
Reported by: Gila County Sheriff's Office internal investigation (the agency that held him); Beason's family (family or their lawyers).