Jury clears Ramsey County deputies in Nekeya Moody death, accepts excited delirium finding

A Ramsey County civil jury on Thursday found two deputies not liable for excessive force or deliberate indifference in the 2020 death of Nekeya Moody, concluding after less than an hour of deliberation that the deputies’ actions did not cause her death. Testimony at the trial included emergency medical technicians who said they did not observe excessive force and did not alter the deputies’ positioning of Moody until they later noted a possible airway problem; the county medical examiner testified that Moody’s death was caused by cocaine use and exertion leading to “excited delirium,” a finding the jury effectively accepted. The examiner also told jurors that, following national guidance, he would no longer use the term “excited delirium” in future reports even though he would not change Moody’s cause‑of‑death determination.

The case landed against a broader backdrop of concern about police encounters with people in mental-health crisis and racial disparities in policing: nationally and locally these incidents are not rare — an estimated 7–10% of police calls involve mental‑health crises — and people with untreated serious mental illness face dramatically higher risks during such encounters. In Minnesota, Black residents have been killed by police at many times the rate of White residents, which helps explain why civil-rights litigation and public scrutiny often follow in‑custody deaths. Social media captured that public unease and comparison: users contrasted Moody’s restraint in the prone position to other high‑profile deaths, criticized the sheriff’s office for promoting an involved deputy, and flagged the family’s separate federal civil‑rights lawsuit even as some local outlets reported the jury’s quick ruling in favor of the deputies.

Reporting around “excited delirium” itself has shifted in recent years, and that evolution was visible at trial: while the medical examiner relied on the diagnosis in Moody’s case, he acknowledged national guidance and professional pushback that have steadily delegitimized the term. In October 2023, the American College of Emergency Physicians formally rejected using “excited delirium” to explain deaths in custody, and that stance — echoed in news coverage and forensic policy debates — has prompted medical examiners and outlets to frame such findings more cautiously. That change in mainstream reporting and forensic practice helps explain why the examiner signaled he will stop using the phrase going forward even as courts and juries continue to weigh its applicability case by case.