LANSING, MI-- Late Representative John Kivela told an officer during a police stop the day before he passed that his life was over.
The Detroit Free Press says the officer stopped Kivela from walking into traffic on busy US-127. The newspaper said it obtained records Thursday from the Clinton County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff Lawrence Jerue says officers believed Kivela was talking about his political career when he said his life was over last week. He says there wasn't a specific suicide threat to justify keeping him in custody for a mental-health assessment.
Kivela was found dead in his Lansing home on May 9, the day after his arrest. It was his second arrest for drunken driving while a lawmaker.
