New York attorney general to investigate woman's jail death

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - The state's top prosecutor said Monday that he will investigate the jail cell death of a mother of eight who waited two days for arraignment on a shoplifting arrest.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his office will take over the investigation into what happened to Raynette Turner, who died July 27 in the Mount Vernon Police Department's cellblock.

Schneiderman is acting for the first time under an order issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month giving the attorney general authority in cases where people die in encounters with police.

A spokesman for Mount Vernon Mayor Ernest Davis said the city had no immediate comment. A lawyer for Turner's husband did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The death of a jailed woman in Texas last month, after a confrontation with a police officer during a traffic stop, has drawn national attention. Sandra Bland was found dead in her jail cell in Hempstead on July 13. Officials say she used a plastic bag to hang herself, a finding her family has questioned.

Mount Vernon police officials said Turner was arrested July 25, a Saturday, on a charge of stealing a package of crab legs from a wholesale food store and was being held for a Monday arraignment. They said she reported not feeling well July 26 and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she was treated for high blood pressure, then returned to her cell a few hours later.

The 42-year-old was seen alive at midday July 27, they said, but was found dead at 2 p.m.

Police have not addressed the question of why Turner was held over a weekend on a minor charge rather than given a court summons and released.

A spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration, David Bookstaver, said Monday that Turner could not be arraigned July 27 because the court had received no written complaint.

"She was brought upstairs to a holding cell for arraignment and got sick and was taken back downstairs," he said. "There was no paperwork. There was no complaint."

It wasn't immediately clear why there was no written complaint.

An autopsy was inconclusive pending drug and other tests.

Mount Vernon is a city of about 68,000 that borders New York City.

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