The Daily Mail reports today that Daniel Medici, a 52-year-old Catskill resident who was arrested last weekend and charged with sexually abusing a minor, hung himself in his jail cell on Tuesday while awaiting a preliminary hearing.
Greene County sheriff Greg Seeley told the Daily Mail that Medici is now brain dead:
“When the paramedics got there, he had a pulse,” Seeley said of Medici, “but he did not get enough oxygen to his brain, [making] his brain dead.”
Medici is currently on life support at Columbia Memorial Hospital, Seeley said, adding that a decision whether to end life-sustaining treatment is expected to be made today...
...But Seeley said this wouldn’t have been a problem if the county had a new jail, something county lawmakers have brought to the table in the past.
“The fact of the matter is that if we had a brand new facility this would have never, ever happened,” Seeley said, “because the COs are at their desk and they would have a bird’s eye view of everybody … because it’s wide open. They could look right in the cells.”
Medici had been on suicide watch, with corrections officers checking on him in his cell every 15 minutes, Seeley said.
