On May 8, 2019, officers from the Maple Heights Police Department booked 36-year-old Nicholas Colbert, a National Guard veteran, for the possession of opioids. Colbert, a father of four, had begun using opioids to manage a collarbone fracture and had grown addicted.
On the morning of May 9, staff at the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center found Colbert dead in his cell, where Colbert had hung himself with the cord of a hoodie tied to his bunk.
His family filed a federal lawsuit in 2021, claiming massive negligence by county jail staff…