Hennepin County pays $3.4 million to settle lawsuit for wrongful death of jail inmate Lucas Bellamy

Hennepin County will pay $3.4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Lucas Bellamy, the son of St. Paul Penumbra Theatre founder Louis Bellamy, after he was left to die in a Hennepin County jail despite crawling on his hands and knees and begging for help while in custody over several days in 2022.

A court filing for the distribution of wrongful death proceeds notes it "is believed to be one of the largest settlements ever reached in Minnesota for a death occurring in a jail."

The announcement of the settlement comes days after the state of Minnesota ordered Hennepin County to reduce its jail population by 239 inmates this week over concerns about staffing shortages and inadequate care.

The Bellamy family declined to comment through their attorney Jeff Storms. He said the hope is this settlement will send a message to jails across the state about the care they need to provide for their inmates.

"This settlement obviously can't bring Lucas back, nothing can," Storms said. "But it's an important settlement in terms of reflecting accountability and responsibly for the egregious loss of Lucas' life."

The filing said that $1.36 million of the settlement went to lawyers' fees and the remaining $2.04 million was distributed to Lucas' father, mother, sister and 11-year-old son. While the exact amount to each of Bellamy's surviving family members was redacted, the settlement noted that "the primary focus is placed on supporting" Lucas' child.

The settlement came after several negotiation sessions with a private mediator and was approved by the Hennepin County and Hennepin Healthcare boards.

Hennepin County spokeswoman Carolyn Marinan declined to say why the county agreed to settle or acknowledge what role its personnel might have had in Lucas Bellamy's death.

"The death of Mr. Bellamy was a tragedy," Marinan said in a statement. "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."

The lawsuit was brought in January by Louis Bellamy. It stated that his son pleaded repeatedly to be taken to the hospital, but deputies and medical staff ignored those pleas. Lucas Bellamy, who was 41, was found unresponsive in his cell on July 21, 2022. He died from a perforated bowel.

The lawsuit read, "Lucas spent the last day of his life ... desperately begging nurses and jail guards to see a doctor." It also stated a that Hennepin Healthcare provider had ordered that he return to the emergency department "for any new concerning symptoms."

Instead of getting care, the suit continued, "Hennepin Healthcare and county employees left Lucas to crawl around on the floor like he was subhuman, like he was an animal, while he slowly and painfully died from the effects of the hole in his intestine."

The lawsuit named nurses Roselene Omweri, Kay Willis and Michelle Diaz, and deputy Lucas Weatherspoonas individual defendants.

State records show all three nurses hold active licenses with no disciplinary history. Weatherspoon is now an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department.

The lawsuit said Bellamy's death was among 15 at the jail since 2015, including eight in the past two years.

Last week, the state of Minnesota gave the Hennepin County jail until Thursday to reduce its inmate population to 600, saying the jail doesn't have enough staff on duty and isn't checking on inmates as often as it should.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections put the jail's license on conditional status on Oct. 31 for failing to meet minimum legal standards, putting inmates at risk.

Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt released a statement saying: "We were surprised and disappointed to receive this order" after working with the DOC for the past several months to address the concerns.

Storms said Hennepin County isn't the only jail system in need of better oversight.

"We've brought several cases involving death at jails, Hennepin County is one of them, that have highlighted and profiled the critical need to provide better correctional care," Storms said about lawsuits filed by his firm, Storms Dworak. "We certainly would like to believe that some of the work we've done highlighting that in our litigation is prompting the state to take more affirmative action to make sure deaths like Lucas' don't happen."

Family members said Bellamy was in jail after being arrested in Maple Plain. Court records show he was charged with fleeing police in a suspected stolen vehicle and possessing brass knuckles. His family added that his death was likely connected to chronic drug abuse.

Bellamy's father, mother and sister spoke at a media briefing after the suit was filed and touched on their grief and disgust with the treatment of their loved one depicted in the jail video.

"I've seen tragedy on the stage," Louis Bellamy said, "and I can tell you, honestly, that I could not have built anything more callous, more disrespectful to … humanity, human existence than what I witnessed on that tape."

Colleen Bellamy, Lucas' mother, said the workers assigned to her son's care were "standing back, as if this little skinny helpless human being was a danger to them. … He had begged, he had crawled on all-fours … until he couldn't even move on all-fours. He just collapsed like Jell-O."

Paul Walsh and Deena Winter contributed to this story.