Family to sue Phoenix and PD after ‘botched’ death investigation

The family of Suzanna Delgado, a 27-year-old woman who died on March 10, is preparing to sue the city of Phoenix for $15 million over what they say was a bungled police department investigation into her death. 

If allegations brought by the family and attorney Cash Fazal are true, the mistakes police made during the investigation could prove costly.

Delgado’s family issued a notice of claim to the city of Phoenix on Sept. 4, giving the city until Nov. 3 to respond. The document claims that Phoenix police investigators failed to secure the scene of Delgado’s death or collect key evidence and that they rushed to rule the death as an overdose despite suspicious clues.

Fazal said police closed the case. Dan Wilson, a spokesman for the city, declined to comment on the notice of claim. The police department declined to confirm whether the case was indeed closed or on any other aspects of the investigation.

“The official investigation conducted by the Phoenix police department was botched,” Fazal told reporters at a news conference Wednesday. “The entire investigation into her death was careless, incomplete and unjust.”

Fazal’s fiery, no-nonsense assessment of the department’s work was framed by softer tones of grief at the gathering, which took place in the nearly grassless yard of the family’s home in Eastlake Park. More than a dozen family members stood somberly, at turns weeping, as their lawyer and relatives spoke at a lectern. Behind them, a banner of Suzanna’s likeness that partly covered a peeling wall.

“We have a big family, and she was very much loved,” Suzanna’s sister, Vanessa Delgado, told reporters.

The notice alleges six claims against the city: wrongful death, gross negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, violation of family’s right to a fair investigation, and negligent hiring, training and supervision.

Fazal said police failed to properly scrutinize the last person to see Delgado alive — a friend of hers with whom she previously had a romantic relationship. The man had a “well-known criminal record in the city of Phoenix” and gave inconsistent statements, Fazal said.

“Basically, he dug his own hole,” the attorney told Phoenix New Times. “He says one thing to ambulatory services, says another thing when the cops arrive.”

The man was neither taken into custody nor treated as a suspect. Instead, the notice states, police took his word that an overdose killed Delgado and let him drive away despite seeing that he was intoxicated and had empty liquor bottles in his car. 

According to the notice, the officers saw that Delgado’s friend “had scratches on his legs and stomach but summarily and without basis declared those injuries were not relevant.” They also saw that some of Delgado’s fingernails had broken.

Still, the notice contends: The officers just let it slide, neither securing the scene nor collecting surveillance footage from neighbors’ cameras. They allowed the man to keep Delgado’s phone for three to four hours after her death, and concluded she died of an overdose even though no drugs or drug paraphernalia were found near her body.

Fazal said police tried to close the case even before an autopsy report was issued. She called PPD’s investigation “a disservice to the community of Phoenix and all of its citizens” and asked for the department to review the case, reopen the investigation and meet with the family. 

“Due to their gross negligence, there could potentially be a killer walking free in our streets,” she said.

Fazal, a former homicide prosecutor in Chicago, told New Times that the department is still withholding several officers’ reports and a body cam video that is referenced in police reports, which evidently shows an interview with the suspect. She intends to compel the department to release those documents via the courts if the parties don’t settle before the family files a lawsuit.

When she died, Delgado left behind two sons, ages 11 and 8 years old. They were, her family said, everything to her. Her mother said Suzanna enjoyed her job at Southwest Behavioral, played the accordion, loved to sing and dance, and made TikTok videos of her various adventures with baking.

Fazal said the videos on that TikTok account vanished in the hours after her death, likely during the period when the man who saw Delgado alive last had her phone. Suzanna’s username was also changed. Fazal has subpoenaed the social media company in an attempt to get more information.

“My daughter was a loving, kind and beautiful soul,” said Suzanna’s mother, Sylvia Delgado. “When we got the call that she was gone, our world shattered. What makes it even worse was how quickly everyone seemed to be ready to move on, to label it an overdose and call the case closed.”

The family disputed the conclusion by the Maricopa County medical examiner that Delgado simply died of an overdose by accident, with no foul play suspected. The report, which New Times obtained, showed that Delgado had cocaine, fentanyl, ethanol and oxycodone in her system when she died. But it also includes details that the family noticed: that Suzanna’s body had several contusions on her head and bruises on her arm. Despite listing these injuries, the autopsy report doesn’t account for them. 

Fazal raised the possibility to New Times that the man had given Delgado a “hot-shot” — an intentionally lethal dose of a drug, such as fentanyl-laced cocaine. 

That suspicion was amplified by an observation from neighbors that the man was sitting in his car on the Delgados’ street for hours before Suzanna’s death. Skeptical of the police and medical examiners’ conclusions, the family hired their own expert for a private autopsy, the results of which Fazal said couldn’t be released yet.

Suzanna’s family members were adamant that they’re planning to sue so that the department will take the investigation into her death more seriously.

“My daughter deserved better, her children deserve answers and our family deserves honesty and accountability,” Sylvia Delgado said. “We are not here for money or revenge. We are here because what happened was wrong and we want to make sure it doesn’t happen to any other family.”

Vanessa Delgado held back tears while remembering her late sister.

“Since the day she died, our family’s been living a nightmare — not only because she’s gone, but because the people who were supposed to find out what happened to her didn’t do their job,” she said. “If the next family doesn’t have to go through this, then maybe something good will come out of our pain.”

Phoenix police have been sued various times in recent years for wrongful death cases — usually involving officers shooting people. At the end of 2023, the Phoenix City Council approved three settlements for different death or injury cases involving police officers. Those settlements added up to more than $11 million.