MINNEAPOLIS — Hennepin County has agreed to pay $3.4 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Lucas Bellamy. It is thought to be one of the largest jail death settlements in Minnesota history, according to court records.
In January, KARE 11 reported how Bellamy begged for days to be taken to the hospital.
A federal lawsuit filed by his family claimed that 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,” Bellamy’s mother Colleen told KARE 11 at the time. “He was crawling around, could not stand up in his cell, begging, begging for help.”
Lucas came from a well-known Twin Cities family. His father, Lou Bellamy, founded the Penumbra Theater. His sister, Sarah Bellamy, ran the theater and Lucas had performed on stage there many times.
He was arrested in the early morning hours of July 18, 2022.
Records show Lucas began getting sick and vomiting, after about nine hours in the jail.
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.”
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 and gave him Maalox.
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.
At 11:57 a.m. on July 21, 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.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections recently ordered the Hennepin County jail to sharply reduce the number of inmates being held. The order followed other recent inmate deaths in which state inspectors found jail staff had failed to do required well-being checks.
In addition, after reviewing “the two most recent deaths,” the state found the county was “in violation of the rule prescribing minimum staffing levels.”
The jail was given a deadline of this Thursday to reduce the number of inmates by more than 200 due to chronic life-threatening failures to properly staff the jail and check on the well-being of inmates.
A spokesperson for Hennepin County released the following statement about the lawsuit settlement: “The death of Mr. Bellamy was a tragedy. Our condolences go out to his family and to all those affected by his death. While this litigation has reached a resolution, we remain committed to serving all people under our care with dignity and respect.”