$3 million settlement reached after NC deputies charged in death of John Neville
Forsyth County and its sheriff’s office have reached a $3 million settlement agreement with the family of a man killed in the local jail.
Five deputies and a nurse are charged in John Neville’s death, though a grand jury last month indicted only the nurse, Michelle Heughins, after investigators presented evidence in his killing.
Neville, 56, of Greensboro, died on Dec. 4, 2019, from positional and compressional asphyxiation that led to a heart attack and brain injuries, according to an autopsy report.
Deputies responding to reports that Neville was suffering from a medical emergency in his jail cell held him on his stomach with his arms behind his back and his legs raised to his wrists, a position that is known to cause breathing trouble and death.
The family of Neville, a Black man, sued the county, the sheriff, the five deputies involved, the nurse and the medical company contracted with the jail.
The settlement filed Wednesday in federal court calls for the county and sheriff’s office, or their insurer, to pay $3 million to Neville’s estate.
Heughins and the medical company, WellPath, are not part of the settlement. Their attorneys filed a motion Wednesday asking for the judge to hold any requests for depositions, interrogatories or requests for admission in the lawsuit until June 24, while the criminal case continues to move through the state court system.
The judge has not yet signed off on the settlement agreement or Heughins’ motion.
A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office said it wasn’t informed about the settlement and would not be able to comment until reaching attorneys.
Public records
The settlement comes on the heels of Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill once again attempting to keep The News & Observer and a coalition of media outlets from accessing public records regarding Neville’s death.
On Monday, O’Neill and the State Bureau of Investigation jointly filed a motion in Wake County Superior Court seeking to intervene in a lawsuit against the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services in which The N&O is asking for the records.
The newspaper filed public records requests with DHHS in summer 2020 seeking further information about how Neville died after receiving a tip that he was killed in the jail by deputies though official records showed his death as “out of custody.”
O’Neill, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office and county officials had not informed the public of Neville’s death in December 2019 and only publicly spoke about it after The N&O filed a motion in Forsyth County asking a judge to release body camera footage of Neville’s last moments in the jail.
The footage was released showing Neville fighting for his life and struggling to breathe and deputies keeping him restrained on his stomach before starting CPR 19 minutes later.
But The N&O did not get a response from DHHS about records in its possession. Instead, in January 2021, the newspaper received emails from the Forsyth County District Attorney’s office showing that O’Neill had learned about the public records request and sought to have the records sealed.
That case wound its way through the court system until an appeals court agreed with the media coalition that O’Neill had not followed the correct procedure to have the records sealed.
Neville’s death captured public attention around the time as calls for racial justice in the criminal justice system following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Like Neville, Floyd was held in prone position by police, causing him to suffocate. In Floyd’s case, an officer, Derek Chauvin, was also kneeling on his neck.
Both men told law enforcement officers they couldn’t breathe while being pinned down.
This story was originally published May 25, 2022 at 12:09 PM.