KARE 11 Investigates: He begged to go to the hospital; instead, was given antacid
Video & records reveal a man suffered for days, begging for medical care that was denied before dying on the Hennepin Co. jail floor.
Lucas Bellamy, 41, begged guards and nurses at the Hennepin County jail for days to be taken to the hospital as he crawled in and out of his cell in excruciating pain, according to jail video and records reviewed by KARE 11.
“Help me, help me,” he cried. “I need to go to the hospital, please help me.”
His pleas for help were documented by jail guards and nurses.
A federal lawsuit filed by his family claims Lucas died on his cell floor from a treatable condition, as jail nurses gave him Maalox and Tylenol.
“These people, that were supposed to be there to help him stood there and watched him,” said Lucas’s mother Colleen Bellamy. “He was crawling around, could not stand up in his cell, begging, begging for help.”
Chapter 1 The Note
Lucas came from a well-known Twin Cities family. His father, Lou Bellamy, founded the Penumbra Theater. His sister, Sarah Bellamy, now runs the theater and Lucas had performed on stage there many times.
Much of Lucas’s adult life was consumed by addiction according to his family. First alcohol, and then in the last three years, opioids.
He was arrested in the early morning hours of July 18th, 2022.
According to court records, Lucas led police on a 35-mile high-speed chase after an officer attempted to pull him over.
He told police he fled because there were drugs in the car, and he knew he had an active warrant.
The following account comes from hospital, jail, and Department of Corrections records, along with jail video.
When he was being booked into the Hennepin County jail, Lucas said he had swallowed drugs during his arrest.
He was sent to Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) where he was observed for three hours before being discharged back to jail around 9 a.m.
His hospital records state, “Patient did not develop any toxic effects from possible ingestion.” He was discharged back to jail with this final instruction: “Return to the ED (Emergency Department) for any new concerning symptoms.”
“Had any of them paid attention to the note that said, ‘send Mr. Bellamy back’ and complied with it, Mr. Bellamy would not have died that day,” said civil rights attorney Jeff Storms.
Storms, well known for his work representing the families of George Floyd and Daunte Wright, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the Bellamy family accusing Hennepin County of negligence in Lucas’s death.
“Mr. Bellamy would be alive today,” said Storms, “if anyone cared enough to treat Mr. Bellamy like he was a human.”
Chapter 2 "Help me"
Lucas began getting sick, vomiting, about nine hours after returning from the hospital to the jail, records show.
Notes from the nurses and guards who saw him show Lucas was believed to be going through fentanyl withdrawal.
He was moved to a private cell and over the next two days his symptoms worsened, he was unable to eat and complained of severe stomach pain.
Video shows by the evening of the 20th he could barely stand. He crawled from his cell and laid face-down in the common area as a guard and nurse watched.
He told the nurse, “I need to go to the hospital, I need IV liquid.”
The nurse took his vitals and stated they were “perfectly fine.” The nurse told him that nursing staff is available 24 hours a day, but she was not sending him to the hospital that night.
The nurse’s notes state, “Able to sit up and sit still.”
The video of this encounter tells a different story, showing Lucas either on the floor face down or sitting slumped across a table.
“You see him sitting at the table unable to hold his head up, crawling around” said his father, Lou Bellamy who added, “He was unable to stand, it should be clear to anyone that this individual needs help!”
Hours later, around 1:30 a.m. on the 21st, jail records show Lucas called a guard on the intercom screaming “help me, help me”.
The guard found him “lying on the floor in the fetus position” and Lucas begged, “my stomach hurts really bad, help me.”
The nurse came back, and according to her notes Lucas told her, “I need to go to the hospital, please help me.”
She again took his vitals, gave him Maalox, and he was sent back into his cell.
“You know, the hospital was across the street,” said Sarah Bellamy, Lucas’s sister. “It wasn’t like it was really far away … It wouldn’t have taken more than two tests to discern what was going on.”
An autopsy would later show Lucas had developed a rare but lethal condition called a duodenal perforation. In layman’s terms, it’s an ulcer that was allowing his bowel contents to freely and painfully leak into his abdomen.
An hour after the last visit, Lucas again called asking for the nurse. The nurse’s notes appear to indicate jail staff thinks Lucas is possibly faking.
The note states, “Deputy walked to see him visually first. No crying, patient resting. Pt aware that a deputy was checking on him. Started to whine.”
That note, in particular, angers Lucas’s parents. “When people are in pain,” said Lou Bellamy, “they whine, they moan.”
Later that morning, Lucas is still begging for medical care. “He requested to get all the medications he could,” notes show.
He was given Tylenol and more Maalox. As the nurse handed the medicine cup to him while he hunched on the floor in the doorway of his cell, the video shows much of the Maalox spilled onto the floor.
He wasn’t given any more and crawled back into his cell. The Maalox can be seen glistening on the floor as the guard and nurse leave.
“It spilled out on the floor,” said his father, “and they left it there! For him to crawl through back into his cell. That’s basic human dignity being disregarded, stepped on. It just can’t go unanswered.”
“Giving somebody a little bit of Maalox when they’re in excruciating pain and begging to go to the doctor, begging for their life, is not medical care – that’s indifference,” said Storms, the family’s attorney.
Chapter 3 Death on a cell floor
At 11:57 a.m. on July 21st, three days after being booked into the jail, video shows Lucas in his cell falling heavily to the floor and rolling around.
An hour later, a guard finds him unresponsive. He’s dragged out of his cell, through the spilled Maalox, as medical staff come rushing in.
He couldn’t be resuscitated. An autopsy revealed he died from that leaking ulcer.
“And they did nothing, nothing,” said his mother, Colleen. “I can’t get that image out of my mind, never will.”
KARE 11 first started asking Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt for an interview about Lucas’s death in March of 2023. She was unwilling to be interviewed then and still was when contacted again by KARE 11 last week.
The Hennepin County Jail was cited by the Minnesota Department of Corrections for failing to comply with the Hardel Sherrell Act – the law passed in response to KARE 11’s prior jail death investigations.
The law mandates the facility conduct a death review with a medical expert within 90 days of an in-custody death to determine if policy or procedure changes need to be made to prevent future deaths.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office refuses to say if they’ve done the legally required death review.
In the year and a half since Lucas died begging for medical care, five more people have died in the custody of Hennepin County.