The founder of St. Paul’s Penumbra Theatre filed a federal lawsuit this week after his 41-year-old son died in the Hennepin County jail.

Lucas John Bellamy died from an infection in July 2022 because there was a hole in his small intestine, according to the lawsuit.

He “endured unimaginable pain and suffering like you would see in a horror movie,” said Jeff Storms, Bellamy family attorney, in a Wednesday statement. “He was forced to stare death straight in the eye in his final hours. He begged and pleaded for his life, but no matter what he did, he could not convince a single employee from Hennepin County or Hennepin Healthcare to save him. Lucas should be here today with his family, and he is not because of the deliberate indifference exhibited by those who were charged with caring for him.”

His father, Lou Bellamy — a director, actor, producer and educator — founded Penumbra Theatre in 1976 in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood. The theater is nationally recognized for its work with Black artists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. His daughter, Sarah Bellamy, is now Penumbra’s president.

The Hennepin County sheriff’s office can’t comment since the lawsuit was just filed and is ongoing, according to Kelsey Demmert, public information officer.

“Our deepest sympathies go out to the Bellamy family and to all those affected by Mr. Bellamy’s death,” she said. “We remain committed to professionally serving all people in our facilities and under our care with compassion, dignity, and respect.”

Hennepin Healthcare, which runs Hennepin County Medical Center, also doesn’t comment on ongoing or pending litigation, said spokesperson Christine Hill.

“As a healthcare organization committed to serving our community, we join with others in sending our condolences to the family for the loss of their son,” she said.

Lawsuit says condition was treatable

While Lucas Bellamy “suffered from drug addiction,” he “was much more than his drug addiction. He was a father, a son, a brother, an actor, and a loved member of his community,” the lawsuit said.

He was arrested early July 18, 2022, and brought to the Hennepin County jail, where he disclosed he’d ingested a bag of drugs. He was taken to the HCMC’s emergency department at 5:53 a.m.

Hennepin Healthcare provides medical care at both the hospital and the jail. He was monitored for several hours and found to be “stable for discharge” as he would continue to be monitored at jail and “has very low risk for any toxic effects from opioid medications at this point,” a physician’s assistant wrote, adding that Bellamy should return to the emergency department “for any new concerning symptoms.”

Bellamy went back to the jail. Shortly after midnight on July 20, 2022, he became ill and started vomiting. He stopped eating or taking the one-hour time out of his cell when it was offered.

At 9:40 p.m. that day, a nurse wrote he was complaining of stomach pains. He “was in such severe and obvious pain that it took him 45 seconds to crawl out of his cell on his hands and knees” when his cell was opened, the lawsuit said.

He told the nurse he wasn’t able to eat and said he needed to go to the hospital. She told him she wasn’t sending him to the hospital and instructed him to contact jail medical staff if his symptoms worsened.

“Overt abdominal pain is also not a typical symptom of opioid withdrawal,” the lawsuit said, adding that the standard of care is a physical examination of the abdomen, which three nurses at the jail did not do. Also, infections “often reveal themselves through fever” and Hennepin Healthcare providers at the jail never took Bellamy’s temperature, the lawsuit continued.

The three nurses also did not send him back to the emergency room as had been noted in his initial hospital visit, or put him on a special watch at the jail for more frequent well-being checks, the lawsuit said.

Bellamy used an intercom to contact a guard at 1:30 a.m. on July 21, 2022, screaming for help and saying he was having a very bad stomach ache. He crawled out of his cell again and his pulse and blood pressure, compared to three to four hours earlier, “suggested that he was at an elevated level of distress and were consistent with increasing infection,” the lawsuit said.

A nurse visited Bellamy’s cell about 8:40 a.m. for standard medication rounds, and he crawled out of his cell in extreme pain. She gave him Maalox, but he “was so weak and unsteady that he spilled much if not most of the dose on the floor,” the lawsuit said.

Bellamy was found face-down in his cell about 12:30 p.m. on July 21, 2022, and he was pronounced dead soon after.

His condition was “an easily treatable problem when timely addressed, and Lucas would have lived” if any of the nurses, other employees from the county or Hennepin Healthcare “would have provided Lucas with timely and proper medical care rather than ignore his serious medical needs,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit says Hennepin County and Hennepin Healthcare wrongfully caused Bellamy’s death, and they and three nurses and a then-sheriff’s office employee violated Bellamy’s constitutional rights. The suit is seeking damages in an amount to be determined.

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