By Maggie Downs
Enquirer staff writer
The death of Dontel Medalion in a holding cell at the Hamilton County sheriff's patrol headquarters was ruled a suicide Sunday, according to the Hamilton County Coroner's preliminary autopsy.
On Friday, sheriff's patrol clerks found the body of Medalion, 28, of Kennedy Heights,in the cell.
They entered the inmate's cell after noticing Medalion had not moved from a sitting position for a long time.
The sheriff's office said Medalion removed the drawstring from his pants or shorts and attached it to something on the wall.
The inmate sat down to hang himself in the cell.
"It's happened in other jails," said Steve Barnett, spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. "I don't know how he tied it off."
Narcotics agents arrested Medalion Friday on a charge of attempting to sell a counterfeit controlled substance, a fifth-degree felony.
The substance was purported to be 4 ounces of crack cocaine.
Medalion was being held at sheriff's patrol headquarters before authorities moved him to the county primary jail downtown.
Barnett said Medalion was not dressed in a jail jumpsuit, which inmates wear when they are housed in the Justice Center. The jumpsuits do not have drawstrings.
Barnett said deputies and clerks working Friday did not deem Medalion a suicide threat.
Investigators are still working to determine exactly how the inmate was able to commit suicide, he said.
Besides that probe, the office is conducting an internal investigation to determine if the jail's policies and procedures were followed in the temporary cell.
"We will also see if we need to change or improve on something,'' he said of that investigation. "We are always trying to get better and prevent those things from happening again.''
Hamilton County jails house 1,800 people a day.
"There are a lot of health issues and drug problems with the people who come in,'' Barnett said. "We certainly want to prevent people from killing themselves on our watch. We do a pretty good job.''
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E-mail mdowns@enquirer.com
