CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- At 6 a.m. Wednesday, Jeremy Thomas Rinehart will be taken off a ventilator and die.

The 33-year-old Fayette County man was declared brain-dead by doctors at Raleigh General Hospital after going into convulsions en route to Southern Regional Jail on Saturday.

His family wants to know why this happened in police custody -- and just after leaving Plateau Medical Center in Oak Hill. An autopsy will be performed on him Wednesday, they said Tuesday.

"He was pulled over for some type of moving violation and he had drugs on him," said his stepmother, Lisa Rinehart. "He got scared and he swallowed them."

Lisa Rinehart said Jeremy ingested cocaine to keep police from finding it. According to police, he was arrested for driving on a suspended license. He also was charged after the arrest with obstructing an officer and battery on an officer, Oak Hill Police Chief Michael Whisman said Monday.

"They had scuffed him around. His shoulders were tore up, his face was tore up. I imagine he was combative and not easy to deal with. There's evidence of that on his body," Lisa Rinehart said.

When he realized he was going to be arrested, he told police what he did, Rinehart said. Police told her he kept begging them to uncuff him so he could put his finger down his throat and throw up the drugs, Rinehart said.

Police didn't uncuff him, but they did take him to the hospital, where he was treated.

"They gave him something to counteract the drugs," Lisa Rinehart said.

According to information provided by Oak Hill police on Monday, he was treated there for more than two hours, Whisman said.

Lisa Rinehart said she is "99 percent sure" Jeremy had outstanding medical bills at the hospital. She wonders if that was the reason he was released early.

She said police told her that while they were driving from the hospital to the jail, Jeremy kept telling them that he was dying.

"The cops said to us ... 'You know how many times we hear that?'" Rinehart said. "When he started to seizure, they realized he wasn't faking it."

The police pulled the car over and started giving Jeremy mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, she said.

While in the cruiser, the officers "experienced trouble" with Rinehart and called for backup, Whisman said on Monday. Officers also said the man was going into convulsions. The Fayette County 911 Center sent an ambulance and State Police, Whisman said Monday.

Jeremy Rinehart stopped breathing before the ambulance got there, and police started CPR. He was then taken to Raleigh General Hospital, Whisman said Monday.

State Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Baylous said Monday that state troopers were sent to the scene to assist in restraining an unruly prisoner. He also confirmed that the man had a medical emergency while State Police were on the scene.

By the time he was resuscitated, he'd been without oxygen for more than 10 minutes, Lisa Rinehart said.

She said she believes Plateau Medical Center never should have let him leave with police.

"All this could have been avoided if the hospital had done its job. They should have never, ever released him or transported him," Lisa Rinehart said. "Yes, the boy was messed up but they never should have done what they done. If they had just let him throw up or listened to him at the hospital ... this never would have happened."

Whisman said he didn't want to comment further on the matter on Tuesday, other than to say his officers did a good job and handled themselves well.

A spokeswoman for Plateau Medical Center said the hospital could not comment because of federal privacy laws.

Police told Lisa Rinehart they had to take Jeremy to jail after he was released from the hospital.

"I don't blame the cops at all in this," she said. "Once they realized what the boy was telling them was true, they did what they could."

Now, Jeremy's three children are without a father, said his uncle Michael Settle.

"He was in the wrong crowd, doing the wrong thing," he said.

Jeremy will be an organ donor, Settle said.

Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.