Did Orange jailers delay help to avoid paperwork? Fatal assault lawsuit advances
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- 4th Circuit ruled the officers can face a jury over Maurice King's treatment.
- Berry said he delayed checks because early checks required extra paperwork.
- King died on March 4, 2020, and physicians said sooner care might have saved him.
Two Orange County detention officers could face a jury trial over allegations they delayed checking on a dying inmate to avoid paperwork, following a recent decision by a federal appeals court.
The lawsuit accuses the detention officers, along with Sheriff Charles Blackwood, of violating the constitutional rights of Maurice King, who died after being beaten in 2020 by other inmates in the Orange County Detention Center in Hillsborough.
“An officer who hears an inmate moaning and groaning and thereby suspects that the inmate has just been violently assaulted has fair notice that deliberately deferring any response in order to avoid paperwork violates the inmate’s constitutional rights,” states a ruling released last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.
The ruling allows the case to move closer to trial or settlement on claims that the two guards were deliberately indifferent to King’s medical needs and that Blackwood, as sheriff, allowed a risky lack of supervision at the jail.
What happened to Maurice King in the Orange County jail?
The case goes back to March 4, 2020.
King, a 34-year-old man with a history of mental illness, had been convicted of federal drug charges and was awaiting sentencing at the Orange County Detention Center in Hillsborough.
Around 6:38 p.m., King entered his cell on the second floor of his jail pod, followed by another inmate, who closed the door behind him. Two other inmates followed, according to surveillance footage showing an altercation at the door’s threshold as they opened and closed the door. A fourth inmate, not counting King, then entered the cell.
By 6:45 p.m., all of the inmates except for King had left the cell and shut the door, the ruling states.
Two minutes later, detention officer William Berry Jr. did his required cell checks but didn’t appear to look in any of the rooms, according to surveillance footage and court filings.
Berry later claimed he used his peripheral vision to look in King’s cell window, according to a three-judge Court of Appeals ruling written by Judge Julius Richardson.
Thirty minutes later, Officer Thomas Linster III did another cell check and also didn’t appear to look into the cell, the appeals court’s ruling states. Linster later claimed he did look and saw King and another person sitting on different bunks in King’s cell. However, the cell only had one bunk and the surveillance video shows that everyone had left, the ruling states.
Between 7:30 p.m. and 7:47 p.m., four inmates, not counting King, entered and exited King’s cell. One adjusted a towel that partially covered the cell door window so it completely blocked the view inside.
A ‘concerning noise’ heard in Maurice King’s cell
At 7:47 p.m. Linster did another round of checks, again passing King’s cell without looking in but reporting he heard a “concerning noise,” the opinion states.
Linster and Berry then listened to an intercom in King’s cell. Berry later told investigators that he heard “a moan or groan” and that he heard someone talking to King.
Berry then waited about 23 minutes before he checked on King again, later telling investigators that if a guard did an early check, it would require extra paperwork before going home, the ruling states.
When the officers did check on King, they found him soaking wet, bruised and beaten, unable to speak and struggling to breathe, the Court of Appeals decision states.
Maurice King taken to hospital
Just before 9 p.m., the officers brought King to the nurse, who called 911 within 10 minutes.
At first, King said he was having an asthma attack, but in the ambulance, he said individuals “stomped him in the head” and “choked him out,” the ruling states.
King, who had a heart attack after the assault, died at Duke University Hospital at 10:22 p.m. His death was classified as a homicide.
“The attending physician and the local medical examiner agreed that King’s injuries might not have been fatal if he had received treatment sooner,” the appeals court decision states.
In 2021, King’s mother filed a lawsuit against Orange County, Blackwood, Linster, Berry, and seven other Sheriff’s Office officials. The lawsuit
After reviewing the evidence, a U.S. district court judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina dismissed the claims against Orange County and seven Sheriff’s Office officials in 2025. Claims against Blackwood, Linster and Berry remained, which the officials unsuccessfully appealed.
This story was originally published July 6, 2026 at 3:27 PM.
