The settlement releases the department - which denies any liability - from claims stemming from the death of Richard Ricci, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage Aug. 30, 2002.

"There's no way to compensate for a life that should have been," Angela Ricci said Wednesday. "You can't put a monetary value on a human life."

However, the Kearns resident said she hopes the settlement will cause the state to take better care of people in its custody.

Her attorney also expressed sorrow about Ricci's death.

"I just regret the circumstances that brought this case to be at all," lawyer D. Bruce Oliver said. "I never met Richard Ricci, but from everything I've come to understand about him, he was likeable and well-liked by everyone."

Two months before he died, Ricci became the principal suspect in the June 5, 2002, kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, a 14-year-old who was taken from her home in the Federal Heights neighborhood of Salt Lake City.

Joni Jones, an assistant Utah attorney general, called Ricci's death unfortunate but emphasized that the state denies any liability. She said the settlement, which was finalized Wednesday, was reached after the state weighed the costs of going to trial.

The agreement must still be approved by U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart.

Angela Ricci's claims against the Salt Lake City police are still pending. In addition to wrongful death, she has accused the department and several of its officers of violating her late husband's rights through false arrest and imprisonment, libel and slander and baseless prosecution. The city has denied the allegations.

Richard Ricci, a handyman who had spent much of the previous 20 years in prison, was arrested nine days after the kidnapping on an alleged parole violation. Before then, he already had been charged with theft for allegedly stealing $3,500 worth of jewelry, perfume and other items from the Smart home and with burglary for another incident in the neighborhood.

Angela Ricci's lawsuit contends that a corrections worker disregarded her husband's history of hypertension and that employees altered his medical records to cover up their mistakes.

"The way he was treated at the prison was regrettable," Oliver said. "He was placed in solitary confinement, he had no hot meals, he was shackled every time he stepped out of a cell and he was hooded."

The Corrections Department has denied any wrongdoing and said doctors determined the hemorrhage was spontaneous.

Elizabeth was found March 12, 2003, walking on a street in Sandy with Brian David Mitchell, a homeless street preacher, and his wife, Wanda Barzee.

Their arrests cleared Ricci and they have been charged with felonies in the abduction. Barzee's case is on hold because she has been declared mentally incompetent. Mitchell's case is pending.

Earlier this year, a judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by another man whom police identified along with Ricci as a possible suspect in Elizabeth's disappearance.

Pete Romero filed a lawsuit against Salt Lake City, alleging unlawful use of police authority, false arrest, libel and slander, baseless prosecution and cover-up. Romero, an ex-convict, was required to wear an ankle monitor for 5 1/2 months during the investigation and claimed he was subjected to "Gestapo-style interviews and interrogations."

pmanson@sltrib.com

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Tribune reporters Elizabeth Neff and Stephen Hunt contributed to this story.

Richard Ricci biography

* He remained at the top of the list of suspects in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping long after his death in August 2002.

* There was never enough evidence to charge him with the abduction, but police said there was much to cast suspicion his way.

* The police pointed to his drug problems, a three-decade-long criminal history and his refusal to account for 1,000 miles he put on his Jeep Cherokee during the week of the abduction. They also found jewelry taken from the Smart home at Ricci's home in Kearns. He admitted burglarizing the Smart home - in 2001, when he was doing odd jobs for the family.

* He and his wife, Angela Ricci, insisted they were home in bed on June 5, 2002, the night Elizabeth disappeared from her Salt Lake City home.

* Ricci, 48, was arrested nine days later for allegedly violating his parole by drinking beer. After spending time in the Salt Lake County Jail, he was returned to the Utah State Prison on June 24. Two months later, he collapsed and died of a brain hemorrhage.

* He was not absolved until Elizabeth turned up March 12, 2003, on a street in Sandy in the company of homeless street preacher Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee.