UPDATE 10/3/2018: William P. Herndon was found not guilty in September.
WASHINGTON — A 15-year-old patient at a facility in Leesburg, Virginia, died last year, and an employee has been charged in connection to his death.
William P. Herndon, 47, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, was indicted Jan. 11 on charges of involuntary manslaughter after the death of the teen patient from Norfolk, Virginia, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday. Herndon was a mental health technician at North Spring Behavioral Healthcare in Leesburg.
Around 3:37 p.m. on Nov. 19, 2017, the sheriff’s office responded to a call at the facility for a report that a teen boy was unresponsive and not breathing. The 15-year-old was taken to a hospital where he died.
According to the sheriff’s office, Herndon had restrained the victim. An autopsy revealed the victim died from positional asphyxiation.
The sheriff’s office did not release information about the teen’s identity.
Herndon is being held on no bond at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.
