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COQUILLE, Ore. (AP) — A man accused of assaulting his wife committed suicide in his Coos County jail cell, authorities said.
Robert Pope, 45, of Coquille died from asphyxiation after he swallowed a small towel, said R. Paul Frasier the chief deputy district attorney in Coos County.
Pope was found after a Coquille police officer arrived at the jail to interview him late Friday afternoon. Jail staff tried to contact Pope for the interview but he did not respond. When authorities entered his cell, they found him unconscious and not breathing.
A Coos County grand jury indicted Pope on an assault charge Thursday and he would have learned of that Friday morning, Frasier said.
Four inmates have committed suicide in the jail since it opened in 1988. The last time before Pope was in September 2002, when Dennis Robertson hanged himself from a hand railing.
Robertson had been accused of shooting a deputy and killing a tourist during a robbery near the North Spit.
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Information from: The World, http://www.theworldlink.com
Robert Pope, 45, of Coquille died from asphyxiation after he swallowed a small towel, said R. Paul Frasier the chief deputy district attorney in Coos County.
Pope was found after a Coquille police officer arrived at the jail to interview him late Friday afternoon. Jail staff tried to contact Pope for the interview but he did not respond. When authorities entered his cell, they found him unconscious and not breathing.
A Coos County grand jury indicted Pope on an assault charge Thursday and he would have learned of that Friday morning, Frasier said.
Four inmates have committed suicide in the jail since it opened in 1988. The last time before Pope was in September 2002, when Dennis Robertson hanged himself from a hand railing.
Robertson had been accused of shooting a deputy and killing a tourist during a robbery near the North Spit.
———
Information from: The World, http://www.theworldlink.com
