A former nurse at the Beltrami County Jail is facing charges in the 2018 death of Hardel Sherrell, who was incarcerated at the time.

Attorney General Keith Ellison filed charges in Beltrami County on Friday against Michelle Skroch. At the time of Sherrell’s death, Skroch was the director of nursing for MEnD Correctional Care, the former healthcare provider at the jail.

The complaint alleges Skroch failed to do basic nursing checks on Sherrell after learning he’d been hospitalized. Prosecutors allege her “failure to provide medical care exacerbated [Sherrell’s] condition and ultimately resulted in his death.”

According to the criminal complaint:

Sherrell was booked into the jail on Aug. 24, 2018; staff reported he initially seemed healthy. But over the next several days, he reported increasing pain and difficulty walking and moving. Jail medical staff found he had high blood pressure, and found him on the floor after falling out of his bunk multiple times.

On Aug. 31, Sherrell was taken to a nearby emergency room, three days after he had first requested to go to a hospital. 

Doctors found he was weak and had high blood pressure. He was discharged back to the jail early on Sept. 1, with a list of symptoms to watch out for and instructions to be brought back to the hospital if his condition worsened.

The criminal complaint filed last week alleges Skroch ignored those instructions. She allegedly did not check on Sherrell for several hours the next day. She also allegedly never took his vitals or did any basic neurological assessments, even after discussing with other medical staff that they believed Sherrell might have a neurological condition. 

By that point, Sherrell was unable to sit or stand on his own, according to the complaint. He needed help eating, slurred his speech and had a continued facial droop — symptoms noted by the doctor as reasons to bring Sherrell back to the ER. 

Sherrell died on Sept. 2, two days after his trip to the ER. An autopsy determined pneumonia and cerebral edema as causes of death, likely the result of untreated Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disorder. 

The incident sparked scrutiny over the jail’s medical providers. Skroch’s nursing license was revoked in 2023, according to a statement from the attorney general’s office. The doctor who owned MEnD Correctional Care, and who was also responsible for Sherrell’s care, also had his license suspended after Sherrell’s death.

Ellison charged Skroch with second-degree manslaughter and criminal neglect. She’s scheduled to make her initial court appearance on April 11.

Sherrell’s mother, Del Shea Perry, has been advocating for accountability in the case since her son’s death; she pushed for the passage of the 2021 Hardel Sherrell Act, which added new protections and medical care requirements for Minnesota inmates. 

Perry said in a statement that she’s glad to see charges.

“I am grateful there will finally be some accountability for my son’s death, but whatever sentence Michelle Skroch gets, it will never be the life sentence I got when my child died in Beltrami County Jail,” Perry said. 

Perry and other advocates plan to make public statements Tuesday at the Minnesota Capitol. 

The charges came after a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigation. The Beltrami County attorney then requested help reviewing the case from the attorney general’s office in 2023.

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.