ST PAUL, Minn. — A controversial doctor under investigation by the state Medical Board spent Monday before an administrative law judge in a hearing that could result in the loss of his medical license.
Dr. Todd Leonard was the focus of a complaint made to the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice following the 2018 death of Hardel Sherrell. Jail video showed Sherrell lying in his own filth in a Beltrami County cell while paralyzed and in agony.
Leonard’s company, MEnD Correctional Care, provides inmate health care to Beltrami County as well as a third of Minnesota’s county jails, by far the largest provider in the state.
Stephanie Lundblad, a former MEnD nurse practitioner who cared for Sherrell three days before he died, filed the complaint against Leonard with the Medical Board. She alleged that despite Sherrell’s deteriorating condition, Dr. Leonard never saw him.
A few days after his death, Lundblad says Leonard told her he thought Sherrell had been faking his illness. She said Leonard told her Sherrell likely killed himself or stuck a sock down his throat.
Lundblad’s complaint would help trigger an FBI investigation and prompt statewide reforms in jail practices passed last month by the legislature.
Leonard appeared Monday at a hearing closed to the public in front of Administrative Law Judge Ann O’Reilly, who will make a recommendation to the Medical Board as to whether any action should be taken against Leonard.
The Board is not bound by O’Reilly’s recommendations and can either accept, reject or follow part of them.
