Man is found hanged in court jail cell

Police and state officials are investigating how a man detained in the holding cell of the Salem District Court yesterday was able to hang himself. Harley Sawyer, 40, of Peabody was pronounced dead at Salem Hospital at 2:36 p.m. after court officers found him hanging in the holding cell, said Steve O’Connell, a spokesman for the Essex district attorney’s office. Sawyer was convicted earlier in the day of larceny over $250 for a bill he had not paid since November, O’Connell said. He was sentenced him to one year of probation and ordered to make restitution on the debt, according to O’Connell. He was kept in custody because his arrest had put him in violation of probation stemming from an aggravated assault case in Texas, O’Connell added.