Settlement awards $3M to family of man who died in custody

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — The family of a Black man who yelled that he couldn’t breathe before he died in a North Carolina jail in 2019 has reached a $3 million settlement in its wrongful-death lawsuit. That’s according to court documents filed Wednesday. The Winston-Salem Journal reports John Neville’s family reached the settlement with all five former jailers who were initially charged with involuntary manslaughter in his death as well as with Forsyth County government and Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough Jr. The family said in the lawsuit that Neville’s civil rights were violated in December 2019 when detention officers and a nurse ignored his medical distress and pinned him on a mattress as he yelled that he couldn’t breathe.