WAS TEENAGER'S FENTANYL DEATH AVOIDABLE?

Parole Violations Could Have Sent Accused Dealer to Prison Years
Earlier.

DETROIT -- A drug dealer accused of running a dope house where a
17-year-old Birmingham high school student overdosed was a career
criminal and a fugitive on numerous parole violations that could have
sent him to prison years ago, records show.

A toxicology report completed Wednesday confirmed that Lauren Jolly of
Bloomfield Township died last month from a lethal dose of fentanyl, a
painkiller that has been mixed with heroin and is believed to have
killed at least 79 people in Metro Detroit.

Donald Edwin Cunningham, 26, with whom Jolly spent the last hours of
her life at the house on Keating Street, according to police, violated
terms of his parole at least nine times since he was sent to prison in
April 2001. He also was arrested for drugs at least twice during that
time, but each time was put back on parole instead of being charged
with new crimes, according to Department of Corrections' records.

When Detroit Police arrested Cunningham and his brother Monday during
the raid of the home on Keating, he had been a fugitive since
September 2003 after walking away from parole.

Cunningham's brother, James Edgar Coleman, 36, was charged Sunday by
the federal Drug Enforcement Administration with possession with
intent to distribute more than 50 grams of heroin.

"We need to be asking more questions" of the Michigan Department of
Corrections, said Alan Sanborn, R-Richmond, and a member of the Senate
Judiary Committee.

"It's one more situation where people have died because of people
falling through the cracks of a parole system that seems to be falling
apart," he said.

Police sources said Jolly died May 24, hours after snorting cocaine
laced with fentanyl at the drug house.

A witness told police that after Jolly lapsed unconscious in the
dining room, Cunningham placed her in a bathtub full of ice to revive
her. When she stopped breathing, a witness told police that they
volunteered to take her to the hospital, but instead Cunningham
panicked and carried Jolly to her car. He then paid a prostitute $30
to drive the car away, according to police reports. Instead, the woman
drove the teenager to St. John Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The Jolly case appears to be a public breakthrough in the ongoing
fentanyl investigation because authorities were able link a fentanyl
death to a drug house and make arrests.

The case is the latest example of Michigan's troubled parole
system.

In February, authorities conceded their mistakes allowed parolee
Patrick Selepak to return to the streets despite a serious domestic
violence case. Selepak pleaded guilty to murdering a Vienna Township
man and has said he plans to plead guilty to killing a New Baltimore
couple.

Since then, the Department of Corrections has enacted several policy
changes.

Police and Department of Corrections records show that Cunningham and
Coleman have walked away numerous times from arrests and violations of
parole.

According to Corrections Department records, Cunningham was sentenced
in April 2001 to serve 1-5 years in prison for convictions of delivery
of less than 50 grams of hard drugs and possession of stolen property.

While he was awaiting trial on those charges, he was arrested for
possession of less than 25 grams of cocaine. That case was dismissed
after Cunningham pleaded guilty to the other charges.

Four months into his prison sentence, Cunningham was sent to a boot
camp where he walked away Aug. 26, 2001. He was a fugitive until the
following February when he was picked up and returned to the boot
camp, records show.

Six months later, Cunningham took off once again. While he was a
fugitive, he was arrested with a bag of heroin in Detroit.

But Cunningham was not charged with a new crime. Instead, his parole
was reinstated in February 2003. Corrections records show on the day
his parole was reinstated, Cunningham was declared a fugitive again.