Police release name of man who died after medical problem at Clinton County Jail

ST. JOHNS — Police said Nathan Smith, of Morrice, was the man who died June 14 after suffering a medical emergency at the Clinton County Jail.

Smith, 43, was being held at the jail on suspicion of drunken driving when he suffered a medical emergency and was taken by ambulance to University of Michigan Sparrow Clinton Hospital, where he died, officials said.

An investigation by Michigan State Police is ongoing, said Clinton County Undersheriff Mike Gute, who released Smith's name at the request of the State Journal.

Police have released no further details about the incident since the day it happened.

Smith was arrested by Bath Township Police about 11 p.m. June 13 on suspicion of driving while under the influence of alcohol, the sheriff's office said.

Jail staff noticed Smith having "an apparent medical emergency" about 3:10 a.m. the following morning and rendered immediate aid, but resuscitation attempts failed, officials said.

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The death was the third involving an inmate at the county jail since 2019. The families of the two other men who died have filed lawsuits in federal court.

The other two men were Christopher Fisher, 29, of Lansing, who died in 2022, and Joseph Hehrer, 26, of Ovid, who died in March 2019.

Fisher was a passenger in a vehicle that Michigan State Police troopers pulled over in December 2022 for a missing license plate, according to his family's lawsuit filed Oct. 4 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan . Troopers arrested him on a Washtenaw County warrant and took him to the Clinton County Jail.

The lawsuit claims Fisher showed clear signs of a serious medical condition or acute opiate intoxication during the jail intake medical screening, but jail staff noted on his intake forms that he didn't appear to be under the influence of drugs.

An autopsy later determined Fisher died of a drug overdose, according to the lawsuit. He had methamphetamine and fentanyl in his system when he died.

Hehrer died in 2019 after spending a little more than a month in the jail, during which he lost 18 pounds and was unable to keep food down, attorneys said in a lawsuit filed in November 2020 . Despite repeated requests from Hehrer, officers and nurses did not help him seek treatment, the lawsuit said.

Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com . Follow him on X @KBPalm_lsj.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Police release name of man who died after medical problem at Clinton County Jail