Gynnya McMillen (Facebook)
Kentucky officials fired a second juvenile center employee after 16-year-old Gynnya McMillen died there three months ago.
Victor Holt was fired from the Lincoln Village Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Elizabethtown, Kentucky earlier this week, according to his lawyer, J. Clark Baird. Holt was a supervisor at the facility. A spokesperson for the state Department of Juvenile Justice told the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting Holt’s removal was effective April 14.
Holt was one of two supervisors on duty when McMillen was found unresponsive in her room on Jan. 11. Reginald Windham was the first supervisor fired in February.
Atlanta Black Star reported both Windham and Holt were charged with second-degree official misconduct in March. The misdemeanor is punishable up t0 90 days in jail and a fine of $250. Both workers failed to perform 15-minute bed checks at the teen’s cell. They also falsified check records. KCIR says the supervisors’ charges are still pending.
It was previously reported by ABS that McMillen could have died from the Aikido restraint used to hold the teen when she refused to remove her sweatshirt for booking. Officials have gone on record to say that the martial arts hold did not factor into McMillen’s death. Instead, it has been blamed on sudden cardiac arrhythmia that happened as she slept. There have also been reports that she suffered from an irregular heartbeat, but the coroner initially said she probably didn’t have a heart condition.
Many questions remain surrounding the teen’s death. The New York Daily News reports Windham, a veteran of the juvenile justice system, missed 38 different checks on McMillen. Jail staff first touched her body at 9:30 a.m on Jan. 11. At that time, her body was stiffening and she was cold to the touch. McMillen had been dead for hours. It was also highly suspicious that she was taken to the morgue instead of a hospital after she died.
