Ellison charges nurse with manslaughter for failing to perform ‘most basic nursing care’ in high-profile Minn. jail death

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed manslaughter and neglect charges against a former nurse accused of depriving 27-year-old Hardel Sherrell of care that resulted in his death while he was jailed.

Ellison announced the charges Friday against Michelle Skroch, nursing director at the since-shuttered MEnD Correctional Care, which provided health care for Minnesota prisoners.

Skroch’s license was revoked and MEnD filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of Sherrell’s death in 2018. Charges in his death were referred by Beltrami County Attorney David Hanson, who requested Ellison’s assistance in 2023.

Sherrell’s mother, Del Shea Perry, has become an outspoken advocate for the health and safety of incarcerated people. The Legislature passed a law in 2021 in Sherrell’s name that set new standards for mental health, suicide prevention and other health practices for those in jail or prison.

Perry filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in 2019 and was awarded $2.6 million in 2023.

Skroch, of Sartell, Minn., did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment. An attorney is not listed for her in the charges filed in Beltrami County District Court.

Charges include one count of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of criminal neglect‐felony deprivation. Skroch is accused of failing to perform “the most basic nursing care,” such as failing to check Sherrell’s vital signs for two days despite objective evidence of medical distress, Ellison’s office said in the announcement.

An expert review concluded Skroch’s actions demonstrated a “tremendous breach in the standard of care,” according to the charges.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension completed its investigation of Sherrell’s death in August 2022 and referred the matter to Beltrami County for consideration of charges. State statute allows the attorney general to take a case upon request from a county attorney.

Skroch became a nurse for Sartell-based MEnD in 2010 and was a board-licensed registered nurse in Minnesota until 2023. She trained MEnD staffers and was named director of training before becoming MEnD’s director of nursing services.

In that role, she oversaw nursing care provided to inmates at more than 40 county jails, including the Beltrami County jail in 2012.

Sherrell was booked on Aug. 24, 2018, and at first appeared to be fine. But his health quickly deteriorated. He was often found lying on the floor, unable to move and complaining of body numbness caused by high blood pressure, which he wasn’t medicated for at the time. Signs of hypertension continued.

It wasn’t until six days later that a nurse expressed concern. Jail administrators arranged for Sherrell to go to a Bemidji hospital the next day after he was found crying and screaming for help while lying on the cell floor in his feces. According to the charges, staffers believed he was exhibiting signs of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder affecting the peripheral nervous system.

Sherrell was transferred to a Fargo hospital for further care and assessment. Discharge instructions were to seek immediate medical attention upon worsening weakness, signs of stroke, difficulty standing or paralysis.

Upon returning to jail, Sherrell continued to go limp. He fell face down onto the cell floor, where he remained for more than five hours without care.

According to the charges, Skroch didn’t check on Sherrell for hours when she arrived for work the next day, violating discharge instructions and policy that required her to check on him sooner. She failed to assess his vitals and was heard telling him to “get up and walk” and that “there was nothing wrong with him and he could get up and walk if he wanted to,” charges say.

A doctor later told Skroch to monitor Sherrell and have him seen by a neurologist, but she instead told officers there was nothing wrong with Sherrell, according to the charges.

When she arrived for her shift on Sept. 2, charges say, she screamed at Sherrell, accused him of faking his condition and failed to check his vitals or perform a medical assessment.

Surveillance footage shows Sherrell unable to control his head or legs, and three officers were needed to bathe him and help him into his wheelchair. But Skroch reported that his condition was improving, and she left work without passing along his discharge instructions to officers.

Sherrell stopped speaking and was found dead less than three hours after Skroch left. An autopsy found the death was caused by a combination of pneumonia and Guillain-Barré syndrome.

A correctional health expert determined that Skroch “demonstrated no urgency or priority in assessing this high risk patient who had been checked out to her,” according to the charges. The expert said Skroch should have recognized the severity of Sherrell’s condition and sent him for comprehensive care at a hospital that would have likely saved his life.

“For patients like [Sherrell] who have a new-onset condition that requires higher levels of care, it would be appropriate to perform a nursing assessment daily to document their condition,” the expert said, adding that Skroch’s actions were “wholly inadequate, done from a distance, and professionally beneath the standard of care.”