The family of a Minnesota postal worker has filed a federal lawsuit after police and correctional officers allegedly ignored signs of his stroke for hours, and he died in custody.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday, accusing Eagan police, Dakota County, and its correctional officers of demonstrating a “deliberate indifference” to the 50-year-old Cottage Grove resident’s medical needs during the five hours and 40 minutes he was in custody.
According to the lawsuit, Kinglsey Fifi Bimpong, originally from Ghana, left work early on Nov. 16, 2024, due to a headache, and was pulled over by Eagan police after he drove into oncoming traffic. From the responding officer’s body camera, the lawsuit says Bimpong “exhibited serious physical and cognitive abnormalities.”
Bimpong could not tell Eagan officers who pulled him over “the simplest of facts – his own name, where he was coming from, where he was going, or where he lived,” according to the lawsuit filed by head attorney Katie Bennett.
The responding officer called a drug recognition evaluator, who didn’t complete a typical 12-step evaluation to determine if Bimpong was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the lawsuit says. The officers noted that he did not smell of alcohol and found nothing in his car to indicate drug or alcohol use. At the traffic stop site and throughout the evening, the lawsuit states that the officers had multiple conversations discussing whether Bimpong was suffering from a medical issue.
The officers then placed Bimpong under arrest and took him to the Eagan Police Department for a blood draw. While at the facility, the lawsuit says Bimpong “stumbled” and “remained confused” and at times “nodded off to sleep.”
An emergency medical provider at the station asked officers if they were planning to take him to the hospital, but the responding officer said “it’s a whole thing,” and instead, officers transported Bimpong to the Dakota County Jail, the lawsuit says. While transporting him, the responding officer was recorded on body camera video saying, “Is this dude having a stro–.” (The lawsuit says the word “stroke” was cut off because the officer muted his camera.)
According to the suit, Bimpong arrived at the jail, where he lost balance and had trouble walking. Despite needing help walking to the jail, Bimpong’s booking paperwork said he did not require further evaluation, the lawsuit states.
In the jail cell, the suit says he stumbled and limped and rolled on the ground for hours. Dakota County Jail procedure requires that all inmates be observed by a staff member at least once every 30 minutes. Multiple officers observed Bimpong struggling on the ground for several hours, yet marked his status as “OK,” the lawsuit says.
“[He] ends up losing control of his bladder, rolling around in his own urine,” Bennett said. “Clearly in pain and struggling for hours when no one is helping him.”
A nurse entered his cell after three hours and 26 minutes, at which time he was cold to the touch and unresponsive, the lawsuit states. The nurse administered Narcan three times without a response.
He was taken to the hospital, where his alcohol and drug screens came back negative, and a CT scan showed a hemorrhage and swelling in his brain, the suit states. He was declared brain dead on Nov. 18, and taken off a ventilator a day later.
“At every step along the way with Eagan and jail defendants, it was a conscious choice of deliberate inference to not bring him to the hospital,” said Bennett.
After his death, an investigation performed by the Minnesota Department of Corrections found that none of the Dakota County correctional officers were current with their first aid and CPR certifications. The investigation also found the correctional officers had failed to document any emergency medical information or conduct a mental health screening, in violation of state law.
Bennett said that “police and correctional officers acted on incorrect and unfounded assumptions about Kingsley as justification for treating a person suffering from classic stroke symptoms with callous indifference that resulted in his death.”
“Hours after Eagan officers transported Mr. Bimpong to jail, it was discovered that he had experienced a stroke, which was fatal,” the City of Eagan said in a statement. “While Mr. Bimpong’s death is tragic, he was not exhibiting an objectively serious medical condition that was obvious to lay persons at the time he was in the Eagan officers’ custody, and there was no indication that he required emergent medical treatment.”
The lawsuit seeks $120 million in damages and policy changes at the Dakota County Jail.
Dakota County says it cannot comment at the time due to the ongoing litigation process.
Source:cbsnews.com
