By Dan Klepal
Enquirer staff writer

A Cincinnati man, arrested for selling counterfeit crack cocaine Friday afternoon, was found dead inside a temporary holding cell at the Hamilton County Sheriff's Patrol Headquarters on Hamilton Avenue Friday evening.

Sheriff's Office investigators believe Dontel Medalion, 28, committed suicide by hanging himself with a drawstring removed from his pants.

Medalion, who lived in the 3000 block of Rammelsburg, Walnut Hills, was taken to patrol headquarters and was awaiting transportation to the Hamilton County Justice Center.

A press release says Sheriff's Office patrol clerks entered the cell after noticing Medalion had not moved "from his sitting position for some time." Upon entering the cell at about 7:15 p.m., the clerks noticed the drawstring wrapped around Medalion's neck and tied off to an object on the cell wall.

But the same press release also says Medalion was discovered "hanging from a drawstring," making it unclear if he was found sitting or hanging in the cell.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Steve Barnett did not return repeated phone messages Saturday.

Medalion's body was taken to the Hamilton County Coroner's Office for an official determination of the cause of death.

Medalion was arrested near Interstate 74 and North Bend Road.He was charged with attempting to sell counterfeit controlled substances, purported to be 4 ounces of crack cocaine.

The last suicide in a Hamilton County jail happened in October 2002 when a Lexington man hanged himself in his single cell after being arrested for trying to make sexual contact with a "juvenile girl" he chatted with on the Internet. That girl turned out to be an undercover police officer.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com