CAMPBELL POLICE Probes continue into death of man

The police chief says he has limited knowlege of the progress of the investigations.
CAMPBELL -- The city's police chief says his department is cooperating fully with investigations into how a man died after his neck was broken during police custody.
A state law enforcement agency and a Mahoning County grand jury are investigating the death of William S. Woodruff, 46, of Campbell. Woodruff stopped breathing while sitting in a chair awaiting booking Sept. 24 and died two weeks later.
Mahoning County Coroner David Kennedy called the death a homicide.
"It's a sad thing that this happened," Campbell Police Chief Gus Sarigianopoulos said. "But to assume that we aren't trying to find out about what happened or to do anything is a mistake."
Sarigianopoulos says he has talked with officers in his department about the probe, but that he doesn't know whether any of them have been called to testify in front of the grand jury. An inquiry by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification also is continuing.
"The officers initiated a report on this when it happened, and then we turned it over to BCI," Sarigianopoulos said. "That's all I've known about it. I can't make comments about it until we get more information."
Sarigianopoulos and Campbell Mayor Jack Dill have both said that they had received no communication from BCI and the Mahoning County coroner's and prosecutor's offices about the progress of the investigations until this week.
The arrest
Woodruff, a 120-pound former jockey, was arrested after threatening Campbell and Coitsville police officers with his dogs, police reports said.
The report said Woodruff appeared to have been drinking and that he refused to walk to a police car under his own power after being arrested.
Four officers -- Kevin Sferra and Bryan Rauzan of the Campbell police, and Marc Eichert and Michael Slivanya of Coitsville police -- forced him into the car and took him to the Campbell jail.
The report said Woodruff fell asleep in a chair in the holding area at the department, and that police called for an ambulance when he became unresponsive.
He was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center, where he remained in critical condition until he died Oct. 7.
Craig White, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said he will review the case for possible civil rights violations, at the request of the Mahoning County prosecutor's office.