The widow of a man beaten to death by his Aryan-hating cellmate last year in a jail operated by Sheriff Joe Arpaio has filed a lawsuit against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office alleging that deputies altered jail records that warned of a potential conflict between the two inmates.
Wietse Ten Boden, 45, was found lying in a pool of blood at the Lower Buckeye Jail last June. He was allegedly beaten to death by his cellmate, 38-year-old Lamont Rider.
Rider, a black man, it turns out, doesn't like "Aryans" -- or anyone he thinks might be an "Aryan."
According to a complaint filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, Rider
told detention officers at the jail that he was "not gonna be housed
with anyone that's Aryan."
Ten Boden was a Dutch citizen and permanent resident of the United
States who spoke with a European accent, so he could be easily be
mistaken for an "Aryan" by an agitated jail inmate. According to his
wife, however, Ten Boden "had no affiliation with either the 'Aryan
Nation' or the 'Aryan
Brotherhood.'"
Regardless, she claims, 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."
Yet, the MCSO placed Ten Boden and Rider in the same cell.
Ten Boden's widow claims Rider told inmate classification officers that
he wouldn't be housed with "Aryans." Rider's problem with Aryans was
documented by inmate classification officers, the claim states.
However, "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," in an apparent attempt by the MCSO to cover up anything that could make it culpable in the death.
Ten Boden's widow's attorney, Anne Findling, tells New Times
there is plenty of evidence showing the MCSO altered Rider's
classification documents. She's sending us a copy of the investigative
report, so check back later for details.
The sheriff's office did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
