A Minnesota family is suing a county jail for the death of their son. According to a lawsuit filed on January 23, 2024, the family claims their son died in prison due to neglect. The lawsuit also claims he died after staff refused to provide him with medical attention.
Lucas Bellamy, 41, died in July 2022, three days after the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department arrested him. Bellamy’s family says that jail staff ignored their son’s desperate pleas for medical attention. In addition, they claim the staff ignored signs that he was in agonizing pain.
Bellamy died of a perforated bowel after spending days begging to be taken to a hospital. Therefore, the family alleged he suffered pain so severe that he crawled on the floor of his cell. Furthermore, Bellamy’s family said the jail staff treated him like “he was subhuman, like he was an animal.”
“They watched, the clock ticked, minute by minute,” said Colleen Bellamy, Lucas Bellamy’s mother. “Until finally, there was nothing left of him.” She added that her son struggled with alcohol and opioid addiction. Also, she said Bellamy was in and out of rehab for most of his adult life.
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Hence, the family filed suit against Hennepin County and Hennepin Healthcare in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. Following the incident, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, offered condolences to the family in a statement.
However, the sheriff’s office declined to comment on the lawsuit because it is ongoing. Similarly, Hennepin Healthcare said in a statement that it doesn’t comment on pending litigation. It all started on July 18, 2022, when the Hennepin County police arrested Bellamy outside Minneapolis.
They allegedly arrested him after a high-speed chase and charged him with fleeing police. In addition, he faced charges of felony, drug and firearm possession, driving while intoxicated, stealing property, and multiple driving violations.
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Upon his arrest, Bellamy informed police that he had ingested a bag of drugs. Then, the jail staff took him to the hospital, where they monitored and released him. However, the hospital instructed the jail staff to bring Bellamy back if he exhibited any new, concerning symptoms.
Nine hours after leaving the hospital, Bellamy became ill and started vomiting. However, jail staff attributed his symptoms to possible withdrawal. Bellamy asked the staff to administer Narcan, a drug used to treat opioid overdose, but they did not. Afterward, the jail staff moved Bellamy to a private cell, where he refused food.
In addition, surveillance footage shows Bellamy crawling around his cell and kneeling in pain as county staff observed him. Bellamy also pleaded with staff to bring him to the hospital, but to no avail. The following day, a nurse gave Bellamy a portion of anti-acid medication.
However, by noon, they found Bellamy unresponsive and lying facedown on the floor. An autopsy would show that he died of a perforated bowel. Consequently, an attorney for the family said Bellamy “endured unimaginable pain and suffering.”
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“Lucas should be here today with his family,” said Bellamy’s family attorney, Jeff Storms. “But he is not. Because of the deliberate indifference exhibited by those charged with caring for him.” Storms showed the media a video of Lucas’ interactions with nurses and jail guards.
In a briefing, Lucas Bellamy’s father, Louis Bellamy, said he had seen tragedy onstage. However, he noted he “could not have built anything more callous to humanity than what I witnessed on that tape.” The family’s lawsuit alleges that Bellamy’s death was among 15 at the jail since 2015.
Moreover, it alleges that checks on inmate well-being are short of standards, which was the case with Bellamy. Consequently, Storms called on Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to investigate.
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