WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A nurse indicted in the death of John Neville has pleaded not guilty to the charge of involuntary manslaughter. Forsyth County Court officials said Michelle Heughins appeared in court on Thursday, where she made her plea.
Neville died in the Forsyth County Jail in 2019. Officials said Neville fell from his bunk after suffering an unknown medical condition, and staff moved him to an observation cell. An autopsy report revealed Neville died from a brain injury after he was restrained.
Five detention officers and Heughins were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the case.
In April, a grand jury decided not to indict the five jail officers accused of Neville's death. Neville's family called the decision "disheartening."
Last week, Heughins' team of attorneys filed several motions in court, laying out their version of what happened in the detention center.
In the motion, Nurse Heughins said John Neville was experiencing a medical emergency in his cell, but he would not sit still enough for her to conduct any tests. She said that's when detention officers came in to restrain him and bring him to another cell. Once there, Heughins noted that Neville was breathing and had a pulse. She then had to leave the room and observe through a window. When officers let her back in, she found that Neville did not have a pulse, and she began CPR, telling the officers to call 9-1-1.
Heughins is arguing she had no part in the restraining of Neville and therefore did not contribute to his death. In her motion to dismiss the case, she pins the blame back on the detention officers.
Heughins also filed a motion for a Bill of Particulars. That means she wants the state to specify what she did wrong, and explain why she is to blame. She claims prosecutors have yet to do this. She claims her actions were not reckless or unlawful, but that the whole incident was an accident.
So far, the state maintains she is partially responsible. The case will continue, but it's unclear when Heughins will be back in court.
Neville's family has filed a civil lawsuit against the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office. It alleges that “the detention officers and nurse who purported to assist Mr. Neville altogether failed to recognize the seriousness of his condition or to follow the policies set in place for handling inmates or detainees with serious health problems or who are experiencing a medical emergency."
Neville's death sparked protests around the city of Winston-Salem back in August 2020. Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough announced the department banned the bent-leg prone restraint, a tactic the jail staff used on Neville before he died.