Milwaukee County sheriff's officer criminally charged in January in-custody jail death

A Milwaukee County sheriff's jail officer accused of lying about performing routine cell safety checks was charged Friday in the January death of a 49-year-old man in the jail.

Laquisha N. Cowser, 32, who was a correctional officer assigned to the jail, was charged with one felony count of misconduct in public office in relation to the in-custody death of Octaviano Juarez-Corro, according to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office. Juarez-Corro had been charged in the 2006 shooting in South Shore Park that killed two and injured three others during a Memorial Day picnic,

Juarez-Corro had been found unresponsive in his cell at 6:30 a.m. Jan. 22. The cause of death had initially been reported as unknown and the sheriff's office at the time said there were no signs of injury or trauma. The criminal complaint filed Friday, however, says Juarez-Corro had strangled himself, according to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's forensic investigator.

There have been three in-custody deaths since Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball took over the top spot at the agency in January and also while she was serving as interim sheriff after former Sherriff Earnell Lucas' departure in October 2022.

During Lucas's tenure between 2018 and 2022, with Ball as his deputy sheriff during the same period, there were at least five in-custody deaths.

The complaint says surveillance video showed that Cowser skipped several cells during cell checks at 4:34 a.m. and 5:05 a.m. Three cells, including Juarez-Corro's, were skipped during both check times.

When asked if she skipped any cells during check times, Cowser answered "I may have, yes." She went on to say that it does not happen every check. When asked if there was any reason to skip those cells, Cowser said "no," according to the complaint.

Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office procedures require correctional officers to conduct visual and physical safety checks completed every 30 minutes.

In her interview with investigators, Cowser said that correctional officers "do receive training on how to do checks and that it is a frequent topic at roll call discussions."

If convicted, Cowser, who had been an officer in the jail for about four years, faces up to 3 1/2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. She is on administrative leave with pay, pending the outcome of her case and subsequent internal review. No court dates have yet been scheduled.

“This office holds itself to high standards in its service to Milwaukee County,” Ball wrote in a statement Friday. “No member of MCSO is exempt from those standards. When a member of this agency is alleged to have broken the law in the performance of their duty, they will be subject to prosecution, and if they are convicted, they will face consequences as determined by a judge or a jury."

“One death in our custody is one too many. But we are confident these charges demonstrate the MCSO’s commitment to ensure that an independent investigation was conducted, regardless of the result,” she said.

The Waukesha County Sheriff's Department is leading the investigation into the cause of his death as the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office cannot legally investigate itself

The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office declined to provide further comment.

Juarez-Corr's death is among four in the jail in nine months. The three others were 21-year-old Brieon Green, who died by suicide at the County Jail on June 26 four hours after his arrest at Bradford Beach; 20-year-old Cilivea Thyrion, who died Dec. 16 by apparent suicide after swallowing a diaper while she was on suicide watch; and 37-year-old Terrance Mack, who was found unresponsive in his cell during a medical check on March 16 of this year.

Between January 2020 and April 2021, the jail reported four in-custody deaths. Three of the cases were investigated as suicides, with the cause of the death for the fourth individual determined as acute heart failure. Three guards involved in two of those incidents were fired or resigned.

Investigations are pending.

County officials have called for an audit of the jail and other Milwaukee County-based correctional facilities, with a particular focus on suicide prevention protocols and policies.

Contact Vanessa Swales at 414-308-5881 or vswales@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Vanessa_Swales.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County sheriff's officer charged in death at jail