Milwaukee’s outspoken sheriff will have to answer to inmate homicide

Man died of dehydration, said to have begged for water

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Milwaukee’s sheriff may have reached national celebrity status but David Clarke won’t be immune from criticism now.

A medical examiner’s office ruled Thursday a Milwaukee County jail inmate’s death as a homicide.

A 38-year-old man with mental illness was being held in solitary confinement and was apparently not allowed to have water. The medical examiner says the man died of dehydration.

Other inmates in the jail say they often heard Terrill Thomas begging for water and saw the water faucet in his cell had been turned off for six days. They also said he had been flooding his previous cell and acting erratically. 

Other significant conditions including bipolar disorder played a factor in Thomas’ death, according to autopsy results.

Thomas was found unresponsive in his cell April 24, nine days after being arrested for shooting someone in the chest and firing two more shots in a casino.

Clarke, who is in charge of the jail in Milwaukee, rose to prominence in recent years for his criticism of the Obama administration and the Black Lives Matter movement.  And, more recently, for his vocal support of Donald Trump for president.