FBI To Meet With Sean Levert's Family

Singer's Relatives Want Feds To Investigate His Death In Jail

(CBS)  The FBI has answered a request by singer Sean Levert's family to investigate the his death this week while being held in a Cleveland jail.

FBI spokesman Scott Wilson told the Associated Press that agents would meet with Levert's family.

The 39-year-old singer died shortly before midnight Sunday, after his breathing became shallow while seated in a restraining chair at the Cuyahoga County Jail's psychiatric ward.

"Our medical people were called and got him to the hospital," Warden Kevin McDonough said.

Family members question the warden's report of Levert's bizarre behavior, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

According to the warden, Levert was moved to the psychiatric ward on the fifth day of his jail stay after he began mumbling incoherently. Once in the ward he became violent and was banging against his cell door, so he was placed in the restraint chair. Authorities say he went in the chair voluntarily, Cleveland's WOIO-TV reports.

Michael Gibson, a first cousin of Levert's, speculates that the singer may have been undergoing withdrawal from anxiety medication.

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WOIO-TV: Sean Levert's Final Hours In Jail

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"He's never before had any kind of crazy outburst," he told the Plain-Dealer.

No immediate cause of death was found in the autopsy conducted Monday, but Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office spokesman Powell Caesar said there was no evidence of foul play or trauma.

Caesar said Levert suffered from high blood pressure and had been hallucinating in jail. Toxicology reports could take four to six weeks, he added.

Levert was serving a 22-month sentence for neglecting to pay nearly $90,000 in child support payments for his three children by two women. He has two additional children with his current wife of 13 years.

"Sean paid child support, just not through the proper channels," Gibson said. "He was a good father."

[neatera]

Yes, that is Sean Levert, just when he was younger.

[briansgirl2]

I hope this (FBI investigation) gives the family some answers to their questions.

[thenicks3]

This country has a president that condones torture of prisoners so why wouldn''t the police departments and/or prisons throughout the United States practice what our not-so-fearless leader has taught is acceptable behavior. Police and prison facilities have been doing it all along anyway, now it''s just been deemed okay by the man living in the ivory tower. Shame on this country and on the people who abuse their power and their fellow man.

[vividee]

The picture posted is not Sean Levert, I believe it''s one of the members from the group "Men at Large"

[pseudo-orbit]

Abuse is so routine in prisons run by Americans all over the world that I''d be surprised if he weren''t abused (at least via sleep deprivation), and that abuse is what caused his outburst, if it indeed occurred and isn''t an excuse for what they did. If he willingly underwent restraint, it was probably to avoid something much worse. The incident a while back in which a paralyzed guy was dumped out of his wheelchain onto a hard floor at a jail was deliberate abuse. The guards might think they''re immune from justice, but ultimately, nobody is.