Louis Bellamy, founder of the Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, is suing Hennepin County and HCMC over the death of his son in the jail in July 2022 from a perforated bowel that left him pleading in vain from his hands and knees to be taken to a hospital.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, alleges that the jail’s deputies and medical staff ignored the repeated pleas for help from 41-year-old Lucas J. Bellamy in July 2022, when he was in extreme pain for several days from a perforated bowel.

Bellamy, of Minneapolis, was found unresponsive in his cell on the afternoon of July 21and died that night. He had been jailed since July 18.

“Lucas spent the last day of his life … desperately begging nurses and jail guards to see a doctor,” reads the suit, which alleges that his civil rights were violated and seeks an unspecified amount of monetary damages. “His pleas went ignored even though a Hennepin Healthcare (HCMC) provider had ordered that he return to the emergency department “for any new concerning symptoms.”

However, instead of receiving the care as ordered and needed, the suit continues, “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. Lucas could have been saved with proper treatment. Instead, he endured a real-life nightmare and died.”

Messages have been left with spokespeople for both the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, and HCMC for reaction to the allegations. The lawsuit names as individual defendants, nurses Roselene Omweri, Kay Willis and Michelle Diaz, and Deputy Lucas Weatherspoon.

Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Kelsey Demmert said Weatherspoon, who was captured on video smiling while near a crawling and ailing Bellamy, is no longer a deputy. The state licensing records list him as a current Minneapolis police officer. State records also show all three nurses as holding active licenses with no disciplinary history. HCMC has been asked whether they are still with the medical center.

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

Lucas Bellamy’s father, mother and a sister spoke at a media briefing after the suit was filed and touched on their grief, their disgust with the treatment of their loved on the jail video and their determination to see those responsible be held accountable.

“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. … It can’t go unanswered.”

Colleen Bellamy, Lucas’ mother, said, “What I saw on video from the Hennepin County jail was total disregard for human life, no mercy. They watched through a glass window or an open door, standing back, as if this little skinny helpless human being was a danger to them. … they watched, the clock ticked minute by minute till finally there was nothing left for him. Nothing.

“He had begged, he had crawled on all fours … until he couldn’t even move on all fours. He just collapsed like Jell-O.”

The lawsuit alleges that Bellamy’s death was among 15 at the jail since 2015, including eight within the past two years. It alleges that checks on inmate well-being have fallen short of standards, and such was the case with Bellamy.

The Bellamys’ attorney, Jeff Storms, showed the news media video of Lucas’ interactions with nurses and jail guards. The last clip revealed him just behind his cell door, the lower half of his body slowly moving about until he went still and died.

Storms said he is calling on Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to investigate the actions of the county agencies responsible for Lucas Bellamy’s well being.

Rather than the county, “somebody needs to investigate the death of Lucas Bellamy, and it cannot be the county, and it cannot be the DOC [the state Department of Corrections],” Storms said, adding that the U.S. Justice Department should also start a patterns of practice investigation of the Hennepin County jail because more people die in that jail than any other jail in Minnesota.”

Bellamy’s death left his high-profile Twin Cities family reeling. His father, who also is a director, founded Penumbra Theatre, which gave two-time Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson his first production. It is now run by Sarah Bellamy, Lucas’ older sister.

Lucas Bellamy once served as the company manager at Penumbra, where he also was an actor. His best-known role was as a dorky janitor who transformed into a suave emcee in the 2007 musical “Get Ready.” He later worked in construction.

According to the lawsuit:

Upon his July 18 arrest, Bellamy told the jail staff at intake that he had ingested a bag of drugs. He was taken to HCMC, where he was sedated and monitored for several hours before being sent back to the jail and declared at “very low risk for any toxic effects from opioid medications at this point.”

However, he was to be returned to the emergency department if he exhibited any concerning symptoms. He was given “mild” medications for his drug withdrawals and asked for the opioid antidote Narcan, but he received none. He began vomiting in his general population bunk and was moved to a single cell, “probably due to bad [withdrawals],” according to the jail staff notes, and was not eating.

By the evening of July 20, Bellamy’s condition “worsened in a drastic and obvious fashion” the suit said, and when Willis, the nurse, came to check on him, she charted that he was “sitting on the floor and mourning when [the nurse] arrived.”

Surveillance footage showed he took 45 seconds to crawl from his cell and collapsed before he reaching a table where he was directed to sit. He told the nurse, “I need to go to the hospital, I need IV liquid.”

However, the suit continued, it was charted that Bellamy was “able to sit up and sit still,” despite the footage showing him on all-fours and unable to sit upright. His abdomen was not examined, and his temperature not taken. He was given medication for his rising blood pressure.

By 1:30 a.m. July 21, Bellamy used the intercom to page for a guard, who found him on the floor in the fetal position saying “my stomach hurts really bad, help me.” He was checked on by Nurse Diaz, who noted that Bellamy can stood, walked out of his cell and sat upright and still to have his vital signs checked.

“This is a gross mischaracterization of Lucas’s physical abilities,” the lawsuit read. Lucas could never stand fully erect, and instead walked to the table hunched over grasping at his stomach.”

Although his pulse and blood pressure were elevated, he still was not taken to the hospital, and upon being checked at 3 a.m., was given no further assistance.

At 8:40 a.m., Nurse Omweri visited Bellamy’s cell, where he remained in distress, and again gave him Maalox, but he “was so weak and unsteady that he spilled much if not most of the dose on the floor.” He was ordered back to his cell. Deputy Weatherspoon locked him, and upon follow-up checks, he “either observed Lucas in serious pain or conducted the well-being check so poorly that he did not spend sufficient time to assess Lucas’ state.”

Bellamy was found unresponsive at 12:30 p.m. First responders arrived and tried in vain to revive him. He was pronounced dead at 1:17 p.m.

“This is an easily treatable problem when timely addressed, and Lucas would have lived if any of the defendant nurses, Weatherspoon, or others 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 read.