MANY ARRESTS PRECEDED MAN'S DEATH IN CUSTODY

In mug shot after mug shot, his eyes peered out with the dazed,
vacant stare of an addict.

Over the years, Donald G. Lewis' hair changed, the expression of his
mouth shifted. At times, he seemed angry. Other times, like he could
hardly stand.

As each photo was snapped at the Palm Beach County Jail, through the
1980s and 1990s and as recently as July, there was one constant: that
he would always be back.

In his 38 years, before he died in police custody early Wednesday,
Lewis was arrested in Florida at least 60 times, almost always in
Palm Beach County.

His staggering rap sheet, a tour de force of small-time criminality,
belies a life plagued by drug abuse and foreshadows his grim ending.

Lewis was arrested over the years on charges ranging from DUI,
cocaine possession and credit-card fraud to battery, resisting arrest
and failing to appear for mandatory court hearings.

Because none of his criminal convictions rose to the level of serious
violent felonies, he was sent to state prison just once: for 46 days.
Otherwise, the criminal justice system dealt with him piecemeal, in
short stints in jails and time at drug rehabilitation centers.

The extraordinary number of arrests he racked up during 20 years
before dying along 45th Street in West Palm Beach speaks to the
extent of his self-destructive tendencies.

"He had a chemical imbalance," said his mother, Linda Lewis of
Lantana. "He was trying to do everything right."

Donald Lewis had an estranged wife and a 14-year-old son. He worked
occasionally in construction. He drove a black Dodge Ram pickup and
cheered for the Miami Dolphins.

Linda Lewis blames her son's descent into drug abuse on the easy
availability of narcotics in the Lake Worth-area neighborhoods where
he grew up, and on what she called his "risk-taking" persona.

Donald Lewis was well-known to Lake Worth police officers, a regular
fixture on the city's streets and no stranger to the back of a city police car.

His father, in fact, was a Lake Worth cop. A rocky career for Mark
Lewis, once a lieutenant, came to an end in 1995 after a demotion for
an angry confrontation with another officer, accusations of
fabricating a story about being attacked and, finally, termination
for allegedly trying to notarize his own signature on a report.

A month or so ago, Lewis' mother said, Donald was released from a
Delray Beach drug rehab center with aspirations of becoming a
counselor for troubled teens. He moved back in with his parents and
attempted to take classes at Palm Beach Community College, she said.

But police said he could not keep away from old habits. Lewis was
using cocaine again Tuesday night, they said.

About 1 a.m. Wednesday, he was found in the 600 block of 45th Street,
standing in traffic and yelling incoherently.

Officers forced him to the side of the road twice while he struggled,
investigators say. As they were arresting him, investigators said, he
appeared to go into cardiac arrest and die, despite attempts to revive him.

Police believe his behavior was consistent with cocaine psychosis. An
autopsy will determine the official cause of death.