State commission finds no wrong-doing at Niagara County Jail in connection with inmate suicide

Rick Pfeiffer -, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·2 min read

Aug. 22—LOCKPORT — The death of a Niagara County Jail inmate is officially being ruled as a suicide and there is no recommendation for corrective action being made to the sheriff's office, which runs the jail.

The Gazette obtained a heavily redacted report on an investigation, conducted by the New York State Commission of Correction, into the the death of Leroy Cheek in February 2022. The report concluded that the investigation of Cheek's death should be "closed as a suicide."

The commission "evaluates, investigates and oversees local and state correctional facilities and police lock-ups."

The report notes that Cheek received an initial suicide screening when he was brought to the jail on Jan. 12, 2022, hours after his arrest in connection with a murder in the town of Wheatfield. The report notes that while he was incarcerated at the jail, Cheek did show some symptoms of increased depression and anxiety and said an additional follow-up appointment "should have been scheduled with the mental health clinician" after a meeting on Jan. 24.

However, the report did not appear to find fault with that.

Cheek, 35, of Amherst, was discovered in his cell, unresponsive, at about 12:05 a.m. on Feb. 27, 2022. Sheriff's corrections officers, EMS crews from the Wrights Corners Fire Company and Mercy Ambulance responded to the jail and attempted revive Cheek.

The efforts were unsuccessful and Cheek was pronounced dead at the scene.

The commission report notes that another inmate said that Cheek told him, "if he heard anything going on in his cell around 12 a.m. not to worry about it because it was (his) birthday."

In a suicide note, Cheek wrote that he did not take his life because he was in jail, but because "mental health is real." Cheek also wrote in the note that he had "never told anyone how bad he felt."

Sheriff Michael Filicetti said he had "received the report and reviewed it." The sheriff also said that the New York Attorney General's Office of Special Investigation had conducted a review of the incident and found no wrong-doing.

Cheek was arrested Jan. 12, 2022 on a single count of second-degree murder in the slaying of Jesse Gonzalez Miranda.

Gonzalez Miranda, 25, of West Seneca, was found dead in a Niagara Road home on Jan. 11. Patrol deputies responded to a report of a stabbing, at about 6:45 p.m., in a home in the 2400 block of Niagara Road.

The patrol deputies said they found Gonzalez Miranda inside the residence, suffering from multiple stab wounds. He was declared dead at the scene.

Cheek's suicide closed the homicide case.