Sheriff: Review finds jail staff response OK after 3 deaths

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - A sheriff says a review of the deaths of two inmates who fell ill in their cells at the same northern Indiana jail and a man who died after fighting with jail officers found the response from staff was adequate.

Tippecanoe County Sheriff Bob Goldsmith says state police also determined jail procedures were adequate.

The sheriff has said 42-year-old Isaiah Powe and 56-year-old Bonny Ahlrich were in separate parts of the jail's holding area in Lafayette when they were stricken hours apart Jan. 12. The Tippecanoe County coroner's office says Powe died accidentally from drug intoxication and Ahlrich died of natural causes.

Also that day, 40-year-old Salvador Perez-Rivera collapsed while fighting with jail officers before booking was completed. He died Jan. 18 at a hospital of accidental acute methamphetamine toxicity.