DERRICK SEGO

Jefferson jail inmate is found hanged

By Gregory A. Hall
The Courier-Journal (Louisville Kentucky)
4 August 2005

A Jefferson County jail inmate used a sheet to hang himself in his cell in the Hall of Justice on Tuesday night, officials said.

Derrick L. Sego, 27, was pronounced dead at 11:52 p.m. at University Hospital, said Jefferson County Deputy Coroner Rita Taylor.

Sego had been taken there after being found hanging from a sheet in his fifth-floor, one-man cell on the fifth floor of the Hall of Justice shortly after 11 p.m., jail spokeswoman Pam Windsor said.

A corrections officer found Sego, entered the cell, called for medical assistance and tried to resuscitate him along with other officers, she said.

Sego had been checked about 30 minutes earlier, Windsor said. She said there were no indications he was contemplating suicide.

Sego had been serving a one-year sentence from Jefferson District Court since April for failure to pay child support.

Since that time, Sego, who was on work release or home incarceration between April and Aug. 1, was charged with criminal possession of a forged prescription, promoting contraband, possession of marijuana, theft by unlawful taking over $300 and two counts of escape, according to court records.

Sego’s record included misdemeanor convictions for trafficking in marijuana, possession of marijuana, trespassing and giving an officer a false name or address.

Metro Corrections is conducting an internal review regarding the death, Windsor said.

The last suicide by an inmate in the jail was in 2002, Windsor said.