Joseph Zarate
Joseph Zarate, 29, was held at the Pima County Adult Detention Center in March 2023. His mother, Denise Mills, says he was found naked and covered in feces in his cell, pleading for medical help, and that he would never refuse his medication or her visits. A judge ordered him released on March 21, but sheriff's officers took him to a crisis center that declined him and then to an emergency room, where he went into cardiac arrest and died on March 25. The Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner lists the cause as complications of bacteremia with sepsis and describes him as hospitalized rather than in custody, a classification the article disputes.
Cause of death, as reported: Died of illness (disputed; neglect alleged). The Pima County medical examiner lists complications of bacteremia with sepsis; his mother says he was left naked and covered in feces in his cell, pleading for medical help, and that sheriff's officers released him to a crisis center that declined him before he died at an emergency room.
Reported by: Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (medical examiner or coroner); his mother.