Death in jail cell probed

Staff report

LISBON

The Columbiana County sheriff’s office is investigating the death of Amy Fortune, 35, of Main Street, Minerva, found dead Saturday morning in her Columbiana County jail cell.

Sheriff Ray Stone said she was serving three days for driving while under a license suspension. Stone said that she was then going to be transferred to the Tuscarawas County jail on a charge of assault on a corrections officer.

Peter Argeropulos, the chief operating officer for CiviGenics Inc., of Milford, Mass., the private company that runs the county jail, said that Fortune was in a cell with another woman. The second woman left the cell to help prepare breakfast for the other inmates about 5:30 a.m.

An officer making rounds in the jail found Fortune on the floor of the cell. CPR was administered, and she was taken to Salem Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy was performed at the Cuyahoga County coroner’s office, but Columbiana County Coroner Dr. William Graham has not issued a ruling.