Hennepin County jail lawsuit filed following 2022 inmate death

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A federal lawsuit has been filed against Hennepin County and workers at the Hennepin County jail after a man died while in custody in 2022.

"Last Monday, I watched my brother die," Sarah Bellamy told FOX 9, after finally seeing Hennepin County jail surveillance footage.

Lucas Bellamy, 43, was arrested on July 18, 2022, and during the process told jailers that he had swallowed a bag of drugs. Bellamy was checked out by an emergency room doctor, but then returned to jail with instructions for authorities to bring him back for any "concerning symptoms."

However, throughout the next few days, he experienced vomiting with severe stomach pain, and could not walk – allegedly begging to see a doctor, but given anti-nausea medications.

"I could not have built anything more callous, more disrespectful to human humanity, human existence, than what I witnessed on that tape," said his father, Lou Bellamy – the founder of St. Paul’s Penumbra Theater, and a respected director.

The Bellamy family is now suing three nurses and a guard, plus Hennepin County and Hennepin Healthcare – alleging wrongful death and constitutional violations.

An autopsy found Lucas Bellamy died from infection from a perforated small intestine.

"This was treatable, Lucas could have been treated with surgery, easily," attorney Jeff Storms of Storms Dworak LLC said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The Bellamy family is asking for accountability, but also reform; jail deaths, they allege, come from indifference.

In recent years, several inmates have died under various circumstances at the Hennepin County jail that have caused controversy.