(Photo courtesy of MCSO Facebook)

Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

Maricopa County officials yesterday agreed to settle a lawsuit that resulted from allegations against the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office. The suit claimed MCSO didn’t properly investigate allegations of rape brought by a 13-year-old girl.

The $3.5 million settlement is part of a larger issue with the agency. This case was among more than 400 sex crime cases that MCSO either didn’t adequately investigate or didn’t investigate at all.

Josh Hoffner is Southwest News Editor for the Associated Press in Arizona and said in 2011 the sheriff’s office reopened several of those cases to try to get a handle on them.