CLEVELAND — Add saving a woman from an icy river to the legend of Jim Simone, Cleveland's sometime controversial supercop.

Simone, 60, pulled off his shirt, unfastened his body armor, gun belt, radio and stun gun and jumped in the Cuyahoga River about midnight Saturday, after the woman was unable to grasp a life preserver.

"I couldn't watch her die," he said Sunday from his home, still recovering from hypothermia.

Simone was one of many officers called to Heritage Park on the West Bank of the Flats after a 26-year-old Cleveland woman fell into the river, breaking through the ice.

The woman had fallen 12 feet in an area where short concrete pillars and chains mark the edge. She had already been in the water several minutes when officers arrived, Simone said.

The woman's identity was not available Sunday night and it was unclear why she walking by the river with her sister.

Simone said when he arrived he grabbed a length of rope and a harness from his car, gear he keeps in case of a water rescue.

First, Simone and several other officers lowered a life preserver they found at the park. The woman grabbed it and was able to hold on until she was within reach of her rescuers, then fell 10 feet back into the water. The second attempt failed as well.

"Each time she fell she went below the ice line, and it was obvious that she was hypothermic and was not going to be able to hold on," Simone said.



So he decided to go in after her.

Officers helped him fasten the loose end of his rope around his waist, and he rappelled down the wall to the water line. But he couldn't reach the woman, who was so cold she could no longer move or speak.

"It was actually frightening -- as old as I am and as long as I've been on the job, it was frightening to see someone who was completely frozen," he said.

It was clear she couldn't hold on any longer.

So he jumped in.

He grabbed the woman by her belt and jeans and helped her hook her elbow into the life ring to keep her head up above the water.

He spent the next few hours at MetroHealth Medical Center, warming up. The hospital was not an unfamiliar place for Simone, possibly the most well-known and controversial Cleveland police officer in the city's history. He has been shot twice, been stabbed, and been hit by cars on duty. He has shot and killed five suspects and annually ranks among the top patrol officers in arrests and traffic citations.

The woman he saved, who also recovered at Metro, came to his room.

"She thanked me for risking my life to save hers," he said. "I explained that that's what we do. It was not me that saved her. It was the Cleveland Police, EMS and Fire Department."