Sheriff’s office: Man died in custody after arrest

Published 12:01 am Sunday, December 16, 2007

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 32-year-old man died at a hospital shortly after being arrested on a charge of public intoxication and as a fugitive, the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff’s Office reported Saturday.

The five-sentence news release Saturday afternoon said the man, whose name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin, died at 9:35 p.m. Friday at University Hospital.

The coroner’s office was conducting an autopsy, criminal sheriff’s spokeswoman Renee Lapeyrolerie wrote.

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John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, said through an answering service that he would not have access to any records about it until Monday.

An ambulance took the man to the hospital soon after New Orleans police arrested him on the intoxication charge and a fugitive warrant from Jefferson Parish, Lapeyrolerie wrote.

His booking records did not include an address, but the man gave a Metairie address after a previous arrest, she wrote.

She did not immediately return a call to her cell phone asking for details. The news release was sent through a public relations firm.