A grand jury has declined to indict five former detention officers involved in a Black man’s fatal injury in a North Carolina jail but indicted a nurse for involuntary manslaughter.
John Neville, 56, stopped breathing at the Forsyth County Jail on Dec. 2, 2019, after the group of officers pinned him down. He was transferred to a hospital, where he died two days later.
A medical examiner’s report showed Neville died because of how he was restrained. It caused “positional and compressional asphyxiation that led to a heart attack and brain injury,” according to the report.
Neville’s family said the decision is “shameful” and has vowed to keep fighting “for what is right.”
“It is shameful that another Black life has been extinguished at the hands of law enforcement, and yet still, there is no accountability and no justice,” his son, Sean Neville, said in a written statement. “We will continue to fight for what is right and just.”
The officers held Neville, a father of five, on his stomach with his arms behind his back and his legs up to his wrist for 12 minutes, video shows, while they struggled to get his handcuffs off. Neville pleaded for help and said he could not breathe dozens of times. He reportedly was covered in vomit and blood and was wearing a spit mask.
“I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe, please!” Neville said at one point. “You’re breathing, because you’re talking, you’re yelling, you’re moving,” an officer replied.
The controversial position was also used to restrain George Floyd when he died. Reports show Neville also had asthma and an altered mental state.
The grand jury decides whether the prosecution has probable cause to try an accused. The hearing is conducted in secret.
All six of the jail staffers were charged by Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill in July 2020. He told WXII 12 News that he was surprised at Monday’s grand jury’s decision. O’Neill said he was not sure what led to the outcome.
Michelle Heughins was the nurse on call when Neville was held for a pending assault charge in the county jail in 2019. She and the detention officers went to Neville’s cell after he fell from his bunk onto the floor in a seizure-like state.
“Because Mr. Neville was unable to comply with the officers’ commands, they placed him in a prone restraint (similar to a hogtie) for a significant period of time, which impaired his respiratory and cardiac systems to the point that he had to be revived multiple times,” lawsuit documents filed by the family read.
The officers took him to a separate cell to restrain him. After using a tool to cut the handcuffs off Neville — the handcuff key had broken — the officers noticed that he was unconscious, video shows.
The officers called Heughins, and she checked on Neville. Then they all left the cell.
The officers off-camera talked about checking for all of their gear while the nurse looked at Neville through the door, video shows. They return to the cell shortly after.
When Heughins could not find a pulse, she asked the officers to flip over Neville.
Heughins’ lawyer, Claire Rauscher, told The New York Times that her client was not responsible for the father’s death and she does not know why Heughins was the only person indicted.
“She did not restrain him or hold him face down on a mat in a cell,” Rauscher said. “She was not allowed to be in the cell as the other officers held him down.”
“She asked the detention officers to open the door and let her in when she thought he was not breathing and immediately began performing CPR,” Rauscher said. “She was the only person at the Forsyth County jail who worked to save his life. She will be fully vindicated at trial.”
“Is he breathing,” Heughins is heard asking the officers on the video.
“Ok. Let’s go back in. We gotta make sure,” one of the officers said off-camera.
O’Neill reportedly asked the State Bureau of Investigation to probe the case after Neville’s death. He has the power to tell the investigators to take the case back to the grand jury.
“We need to get with the family and the investigators and the people that are truly as invested in this case as we are and make a collective decision about what is the best way to pursue justice in this case,” O’Neill said.
Neville’s family filed a federal civil case in September 2021 against the detention officers, Heughins, Forsyth County and Wellpath LLC, the jail’s medical service provider at the time.
Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough said his “heart” and “prayers go out” to Neville’s family and all “those affected by this incident.”
“As it relates to the findings of the court and their determination, it would not be proper or ethical for me to comment as this is still a civil and criminal case up for litigation,” Kimbrough said in a statement. ‘Again, our prayers are still with the family and all those involved. May God give us peace and understanding.”
