Arizona Corrections Director Charles Ryan is appealing a ruling that found him in contempt of court and fined the state $1.4 million for failing to adequately improve health care for inmates.
Ryan's attorneys said in a court filing Saturday that he planned to appeal the June 22 decision by Magistrate Judge David Duncan, who has since retired from the bench.
Lawyers for Ryan also are asking a lower-court judge who replaced Duncan in the case to free the state of its responsibilities to measure parts of an inmate-care settlement that the state contends it's complying with.
That request was already rejected by Duncan.
The fine was based on the state's acknowledgement that it had more than 1,400 instances when it failed to make improvements that it had promised.
