Nurse charged with manslaughter in 2018 death of Beltrami County inmate Hardel Sherrell

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office filed criminal charges in Beltrami County on Friday against a correctional nurse accused of failing to check a critically ill inmate’s vital signs for the final two days of his life.

Michelle Skroch, 37, of Sartell, faces charges of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of criminal neglect in connection with the death of Hardel Sherrell, court records show.

According to a criminal complaint, Sherrell, 27, was booked into the Beltrami County Jail in Bemidji on Aug. 24, 2018. Over the course of the next week, he exhibited high blood pressure, spreading numbness and gradual loss of control over his body. On Aug. 31, 2018, a doctor said Sherrell’s symptoms were consistent with Guillan-Barré syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder that attacks the nervous system.

He was taken into the emergency room for further evaluation, and upon his return to the jail on Sept. 1, 2018, discharge instructions advised that jail staff should take him back to the emergency room if he exhibited any of a list of nine symptoms, the complaint states.

Skroch reported for her shift about 12 hours after Sherrell’s return to custody.

Over the next two days, charging documents allege Skroch never touched Sherrell to take his vitals, only observing him from afar and dismissing the smell of urine and feces coming from his cell.

Correctional officers noted that Sherrell continued to have difficulty moving and had little control over his body; Skroch, however, told them he was “OK and perfectly fine” and did not share the emergency room discharge instructions with them.

On multiple occasions, Skroch told Sherrell to walk on his own power. One corrections officer reported Skorch “basically screaming” at Sherrell to get up, accusing him of faking.

In his final hours, Sherrell was practically immobile, had rapid, shallow breathing and lost the ability to speak, charging documents state.

Sherrell was pronounced dead the evening of Sept. 2, 2018. An autopsy determined he died of pneumonia and cerebral edema, an excess accumulation of fluid in the brain.

According to the criminal complaint, an external review by a correctional health expert found that Skroch’s assessment of Sherrell’s condition was “wholly inadequate, done from a distance, and professionally beneath the standard of care.”

“[Skroch] failed to complete the most basic nursing function of taking vital signs in her assessment of [Sherrell],” the medical expert concluded. He added that “[t]he failure to obtain any vital signs on a critically ill patient over two days is such a tremendous breach in the standard of care that it is tantamount to an abandonment of the most basic professional responsibilities of a nurse.”

Sherrell’s symptoms could have been treated and he could have survived, the medical expert said, if Skroch had “performed even the most basic nursing care or assessment,” the complaint states.

Skroch’s nursing license was revoked in 2023.

Online court records show Skroch’s first court appearance is set for April 11. She was charged via summons and is not in custody.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension conducted an initial investigation into Sherrell’s death and later handed the case over to Beltrami County Attorney David Hanson for charging consideration.

Sherrell’s family called for Hanson to hand the case over to Attorney General Keith Ellison back in 2022, arguing the county had a conflict of interest. Ellison’s office began reviewing the case at the county’s request in 2023.

The Minnesota Legislature passed the Hardel Sherrell Act in 2021, codifying minimum standards of care in correctional facilities.

Skroch’s first court appearance is scheduled for April 11.