Posted on 11/11/2008 1:31:09 PM PST by RogerFGay
CLEVELAND -- R&B singer Sean Levert entered the Cuyahoga County Jail on March 24 clutching the prescribed medication he took regularly for anxiety.
Jail staff took the bottle of Xanax away from him and failed to give him a single pill during the six days he was there, investigators said. Even when he began suffering horrifying delusions, he wasn't given his medication and never saw a doctor.
Instead, on March 30, jailers strapped Levert into a restraint chair, still fighting the monstrous visions in his head caused by withdrawal from the medication. Minutes later, the 39-year-old son of O'Jays star Eddie Levert stopped breathing. His heart then stopped and doctors couldn't save him.
Recently released Cuyahoga County investigators' reports, interviews and the Cuyahoga County coroner's report together reveal the details of Sean E. Levert Sr.'s final days in the overcrowded jail, run by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office.
Levert was sentenced March 24 to 22 months in prison for owing $90,988.96 to three children he fathered before marrying 13 years ago. Deputies brought him from a Cuyahoga County courtroom to the jail in the same building. During the booking process, Levert surrendered a bottle of Xanax that contained 37 pills. He began taking the 2-milligram pills three times a day in November 2007. The prescription for 90 pills was refilled on March 12.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.cleveland.com ...
I thought debtors prison was illegal.
It is ... unless it's child support. They can, do and WILL take you to jail for defying their court orders.
Those bastards murdered him.
His blood is on their hands.
I doubt if they care, though. They had to sit, listening to him screaming, for all those days. They didn’t care then, I doubt they care now.
I take medication, too. High blood pressure pills. My doctor said if I suddenly stop taking them I will probably stroke out, or have a heart attack. If I was Sean, sitting in that hellhole jail, and they took away MY medication, I, too, would have died under their evil ministrations.
I hope they all end up losing their jobs, and the county loses millions.
I know there’s some Freepers here who are glad to see this guy die...they cheer every time another person is killed by the state, their property seized or their dogs killed and house torn apart, but as I have said for years, WAIT until a Democrat takes office, then we will see the strong arm of the State crush US, crush conservatives, Christians, gun owners, businessmen and property owners.
I’m not saying Sean was murdered because he was a conservative, he wasn’t...what I am saying is that when people don’t stand up against ALL injustice and ALL unjust laws, whether they hurt people who hurt US, or hurt people like Sean, when we don’t stand against that injustice then it most assuredly will in turn be used against us.
Ed
Well said.
Good - because I was pretty sure 50 mg would have made the need for any further doses, ah, shall we say, unecessary.
Ed, I’ve said that before too.
When you don’t protest something that is wrong just because it suits you, next time you might be on the wrong side of the issue.
One relates to the other. Simple everyday stresses for people without heart conditions can be fatal for folks with them. That is how they explained it to me at his doctor.
It wouldn’t surprise me. ;-(
Pretty much, it depends on how bad the addiction is of course. We routinely have people ON xanax or more accurately ativan when they come to us with end-stage liver failure from alcoholism.
Going cold turkey from either can be lethal, usually brain damage from seizures.
It’s always smart to wean off any benzodiazepine even if you haven’t been on it for too terribly long.
Everything. *sigh*
We’re the cops. We have badges and guns. We don’t have to give a damn what we do to you.
Okay....uhhh....I care because.....?
Most likely they left out all the refills between the initial prescription and the last.
Someone I love very much was taking .250 Mg once a day for 3 months. Prescribed by a doctor who was extremely misinformed and showed an arrogant careless attitude. Treated this person like a common "street addict" and refused to help with a withdrawal program.
This stuff takes MONTHS of withdrawal and up to two years. The longer the usage, the longer the withdrawal.
I suggest Googling Heather Ashton (Dr. & Pharmacologist, spent 35+ years studying this crap) or click benzos.org.uk
Best to educate yourself if you are interested. You'll never believe ME!
I can’t recall their names, but on most threads in the past when there has been a person abused, killed, arrested wrongfully, etc., there were always some Freepers, not the majority, but a significant minority, who seemingly always supported the cops no matter how egregious their actions.
I don’t remember their names because I was never one to get into flame wars, I just noted their continual support of cops’ actions no matter how unjust.
Ed
Uhh ok I care whether you care because?
Perhaps they saw what happened to Joe the Plumber with Obama supporters in charge.
Exactly. That is a large dosage to take for that many years. It sounds like he was addicted to Xanax with his doctors help.
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