Officials say the 36-year-old Maple Heights man was found unresponsive inside the jail Friday afternoon. CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County Director of Communications Mary Louise Madigan confirms to WKYC that an inmate has died at the Cuyahoga County Jail. According to Madigan, a 36-year-old Nicholas Colbert of Maple Heights was arrested Wednesday on a drug possession charge and was found unresponsive in the veterans pod of the jail just before 2:30 p.m. Friday. EMS crews arrived 10 minutes later and transported him to MetroHealth Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead just after 3 p.m. Colbert's cause of death is currently under investigation. Officials say all protocols were followed and the inmate was given a medical evaluation and asked a series questions before being placed in the general jail population. There were reportedly no issues prior to Friday's incident, and he had been moved to the veterans pod on Thursday. This is the ninth inmate to die at the Cuyahoga County Jail since the start of 2018. The facility has since found itself at the center of a massive scandal involving alleged corruption and mistreatment of inmates. A scathing report from the U.S. Marshals service was followed by a failed state inspection, and numerous lawsuits have been filed accusing operators of denying inmates medical assistance, forcing inmates to sleep on the floor, and even serving food with bugs in it. "You almost can't believe that they let someone else die in their custody," says Civil Rights Lawyer, Paul J.Cristallo, who represents an inmate who was assaulted as well as families of two men who died in the jail. "Anytime there's an inmate in a facility like the county jail, the county has a legal responsibility for the caring and well-being of these individuals." Chairman of Cuyahoga County Council's Public Safety & Justice Affairs Committee, Michael Gallagher, released a statement to WKYC: "I have read the report and was notified of the death. The council has and will continue to prioritize our county jail. Since the initial deaths we, the council, have focused our energy on not only the medical care in the jail but the training and hiring of new leadership and staff. We are near full employment on the CO side of things. Metro Health will be taking over fully in October, a new food service will will be introduced soon and our new Director will start in Two weeks. I am saddened by this tragedy and await the full report on the circumstances involved."<doc-sep>CLEVELAND, Ohio — Nicholas Colbert struggled with heroin addiction in the decade or so since he left the National Guard. His family members, distraught over his addiction, hoped he’d land in jail to keep him from what his mother feared was an inevitable overdose. When Colbert was arrested on Tuesday by Maple Heights police on a fourth-degree felony drug possession charge, his mother Laura Colbert was happy her son was no longer on the street, where he continued to chase his addiction. Colbert, however, died Friday at the Cuyahoga County Jail, a few hours after he was moved to a special cluster of cells specifically for veterans. Previous Coverage Cuyahoga County officials have not yet said how Colbert died, but three sources told cleveland.com that Colbert hanged himself in the jail. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff is investigating Colbert’s death. Colbert at the time was being held in the jail on $1,500 bond. “I expected to lose him out there, but I didn’t expect to lose him in jail,” Colbert’s mother Laura Colbert said. “It was the one place I wanted him to be so he could be alive.” Colbert’s death came at a time of intense scrutiny over conditions at the jail and treatment of inmates. Eight inmates died in 2018 and Colbert’s death is the first in 2019. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office and FBI are conducting investigations into civil rights violations at the jail and a Cleveland judge has called for a consent decree that would enjoin in a mandatory reform would enjoin the county in a mandatory reform agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice with the oversight of a federal judge. A civil lawsuit filed in December on behalf of inmates also calls for a similar consent decree. Colbert’s mother and two brothers— twin Jeremy and younger brother Danny— all said they were awaiting answers to help explain his death. “That’s just not my brother,” Danny Colbert said. “He had been through a lot, but it wasn’t like him to be that low to do that. I thought that jail would be the best place for him so he didn’t die in the streets. I thought he was safe but I guess not.” Colbert was an out-going person with a slew of friends, his family said. He loved poetry, Danny Colbert said. He also loved spending time writing rap lyrics and used his free time and money to buy studio time to record songs, including some about fighting his heroin addiction, his mother said. “He was a really good person, but the drugs got him got him in the end,” Danny Colbert said. “I always looked up to him for going overseas with the National Guard. He was a real caring and good person until drugs got a hold of him.” Colbert grew in Akron’s Ellet neighborhood and graduated from LifeSkills in Akron. His mother struggled with drug addiction. Laura Colbert said her son helped her get clean in 2004 while awaiting the birth of Nicholas Colbert’s first of four daughters. “When his first daughter was arriving, I was on crack,” Laura Colbert said. “I was excited about my first grandchild and I told him I couldn’t wait to have her for the weekends. He said she couldn’t stay with me until I got clean. That’s what helped me get clean 15 years ago.” After his daughter was born, Nicholas Colbert enlisted in the National Guard in order to provide to a better life for his daughter and first wife, who he married in 2007, his family said. He was twice deployed overseas, including to Egypt for about a year. His family members said he never spoke about his time overseas, but excitedly shared photos of his trip to see the Egyptian pyramids and the Red Sea. Once he returned from his tour overseas and his time at the National Guard ended, Nicholas Colbert started using heroin, his family said. They were unsure exactly why, but said both he and his wife were addicts. She died of an overdose in 2013. His struggle with heroin marked the remainder of his life, his family said. He overdosed at least three times, each time being revived by the heroin overdose antidote Narcan, his mother said. Colbert lost custody of his children, who are between the ages of 14 and 1. Several times, his family said, he either sought rehabilitation on his own or was court-ordered to do so. He’d seem to be doing well for a while, but would ultimately revert back to using. In 2015, for example, he pleaded guilty in a felony theft case. He was allowed to enter a treatment in lieu of conviction program. He re-married in 2018, but continued struggling with heroin. About a month ago, he called asking for help, his brother Jeremy said. Jeremy said he picked him up in Cleveland and drove him back to his home in Akron, bought him dinner, got him clean clothes and a haircut. “I tried to show him what a happy life looked like,” said Jeremy Colbert, who is the father of three. “I tried to encourage down the right path. He tried to steal some money from me, so I took him back to Cleveland. That wasn’t my brother doing that. That was the drugs. Somewhere down the line he just needed that drug more than anything.”<doc-sep>
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A 36-year-old military veteran who died after hanging himself in the Cuyahoga County Jail was identified on Saturday. Nicholas Colbert of Cleveland died Friday at MetroHealth, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner. Colbert was booked into the jail on Wednesday after being arrested by Maple Heights police and charged with fourth-degree felony drug possession, according to court records. His bond was set at $1,500 Wednesday after his initial appearance in Garfield Heights Municipal Court. Court records say he was scheduled for an early disposition hearing Monday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Previous story: Cuyahoga County inmate hanged himself; was combat veteran arrested for drug possession The medical examiner has not made an official ruling on his death, but three sources told Cleveland.com that he hanged himself. Colbert’s death is the first at the jail in 2019. Eight people died in Cuyahoga County custody in 2018, sparking scrutiny of all levels at the jail. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is conducting an on-going criminal investigation into civil rights violations at the jail that has so far netted indictments of seven corrections officers, the former warden and the former jail director. And the U.S. Marshals Service in November found possible civil rights violations and “inhumane” conditions at the jail, including medical and mental health access for inmates. Cleveland Municipal Judge Michael Nelson has called for a consent decree that would enjoin the county in a mandatory reform agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice with the oversight of a federal judge. A civil lawsuit filed in December on behalf of inmates also calls for a similar consent decree. Four of the eight deaths in 2018 came by suicide and attempted suicides at the jail tripled from 23 in 2016 to 69 in 2018, according to county records.