Judge Keeps Felony Charges Alive in 2018 Beltrami County Jail Death

Three felony charges against Michelle R. Skroch, the nursing director for MEnD Correctional Care at Beltrami County Jail, survived a dismissal attempt Thursday when Judge Jeanine Brand ruled the Minnesota attorney general's office had shown sufficient probable cause to proceed with the case.

Skroch, 38, faces charges stemming from the September 2, 2018 death of Hardel Sherrell, a 27-year-old who died in Beltrami County Jail custody two days after experiencing high blood pressure, numbness from the waist down, trouble swallowing and weakness serious enough to warrant a hospital visit. The doctor who discharged Sherrell wrote care instructions listing specific symptoms that should have triggered immediate additional medical attention.

According to the criminal complaint, Sherrell exhibited nearly all of those symptoms upon returning to the jail but received very little care as his health rapidly deteriorated. Judge Brand, in her March 12 order, described Skroch's conduct in stark terms: despite knowing Sherrell had just been hospitalized, Skroch never took his vitals, ignored him for hours at a time and yelled at him that he was "faking it."

Brand based her denial on more than 3,000 pages of documents and two hours of video footage submitted by the prosecution. The three charges that remain pending are second-degree manslaughter due to culpable negligence, criminal neglect through knowingly depriving a vulnerable adult, and criminal neglect over an extended period of time.

The charges were filed last year, and the case now moves forward with all three felony counts intact. No trial date has been publicly announced.