Pubdate: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 Source: Detroit Free Press (MI) Copyright: 2006 Detroit Free Press Contact: http://www.freep.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125 Author: Jim Schaefer and Kim Norris Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) DETROIT TEEN'S LIFE SLIPS AWAY IN DRUG DEN Bloomfield Township teen Lauren Jolly clung to life for three hours after snorting a lethal dose of heroin in a Detroit drug house, but police say the man running the place wouldn't allow anyone to take her to a hospital, the Free Press has learned. After an ice bath and CPR failed to revive Jolly, 17, the night of May 24, the man, Donald Coleman, carried her to her car, police said. He allegedly then ordered another drug customer to drive Jolly elsewhere in Detroit, park the car and leave the body inside. Coleman gave the woman $30 to return by cab, police said. But the woman, who is an admitted prostitute, instead took Jolly to St. John Hospital, where the Birmingham Groves High School junior was pronounced dead. When police arrived at the hospital, the woman lied and said she had found the girl passed out in a car near 8 Mile, police said. The Free Press also learned Jolly had told police about the drug house six weeks before her death, when she was arrested in connection with having heroin laced with fentanyl, a painkiller suspected in the deaths of many area drug users in recent weeks. Jolly's parents could not be reached for comment Tuesday and no one answered the door at their home. New details in the case emerged Tuesday as Coleman's brother, James Edgar Coleman, 36, waived a detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Detroit on federal charges of possession with intent to distribute heroin and crack cocaine. Donald Coleman, 26, was being held in Detroit on a parole violation, police said. Both brothers have addresses in Detroit, police said. Officers from the Detroit Police Major Crimes Division and federal agents arrested the Coleman brothers Saturday night in a raid at the house where Jolly died, on Keating near John R and 7 Mile. Eleven other people inside the house were ticketed for loitering in a drug den, police said. Six of them gave residences in Detroit's suburbs. No one has been charged in connection with the teenager's death, but federal and local investigations are continuing in the possible roles of both men and whether Jolly's overdose was caused by a deadly mix of heroin and the painkiller fentanyl. Authorities have blamed fentanyl -- which is many times more powerful than heroin -- for at least 83 deaths in Wayne and Oakland counties this year. Toxicology reports were pending on Jolly's cause of death, which police have preliminarily called an overdose. But police said fentanyl-laced heroin had been sold from the house where she died. Both Coleman brothers have prior drug convictions. Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said Tuesday that Jolly had been arrested in April in connection with possession of heroin laced with fentanyl. Detectives from a regional task force had followed her and an unidentified friend from Groves High School to the Suez Motel at 8 Mile and Dequindre in Warren, where Jolly and her male friend appeared to make a drug buy on April 12. Police pulled them over at 12 Mile and Southfield Road in Lathrup Village, found heroin and arrested them. Jolly and her friend wrote confessions, and authorities used the information to obtain search warrants on the hotel and on the Keating drug house in April, McCabe said. McCabe said Tuesday he did not think Jolly's cooperation with police in April, and her identification of the drug house, had any connection with her death in May, though police are still investigating. The investigation into Jolly's death picked up steam over the weekend when state and federal officials spoke with several people connected with the drug house, including the prostitute, who told police she had lied earlier because she was afraid of Donald Coleman. The woman now described going to the house on Keating to buy heroin and finding Jolly sitting unconscious in the dining room. The woman told police that she learned that after Jolly took the heroin, Donald Coleman and others had put Jolly in the bathtub with ice cubes to try to revive her. Her wet clothes had been removed. The woman said that the teenager eventually appeared to stop breathing. She and Donald Coleman then tried CPR, unsuccessfully, police said. There were about eight people inside at the time, police said. Several people volunteered to take Jolly to the hospital before she died, but Donald Coleman wouldn't allow it, police said. After Jolly died, Donald Coleman grew frantic and came up with the plan to dump her body, the woman said. Fentanyl is a synthetically manufactured pain medication that is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. In its legally prescribed form, it typically is administered through a patch, an oral lozenge (called a fentanyl lollipop) or through injections. It often is prescribed to cancer patients. Authorities say it is combined with heroin to increase the high. Local medical professionals say overdose victims can be saved if treated quickly. "Heroin and opiates in general can stop your respiratory system and brain damage can result," said Dr. Patricia Nouhan, an emergency doctor at St. John Hospital, where Jolly's body was taken. "You can put them on reversal medication intravenously and they come back from the dead literally," she said. But she added that the medication's effectiveness can be compromised by the addition of fentanyl. Heroin laced with fentanyl has appeared on the streets in cities from Chicago to St. Louis to Pittsburgh. It has drawn together local, state and federal law enforcement officials to fight it and even extended to Mexico, where a fentanyl lab was raided by Mexican authorities several weeks ago. The growing threat also has gotten the attention of the Bush administration. Last week, Scott Burns, the deputy drug czar, attended a conference on fentanyl in Chicago. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman