Officers ignored inmate yelling in pain before he died of brain injuries, lawsuit says
Dillon Bakke was sleeping on the back porch of his mom’s house in Minnesota when a neighbor called police and reported him as a “suspicious person,” according to a federal lawsuit.
The responding Saint Paul police officers arrested Bakke on a charge of fifth-degree drug possession and took him to the Ramsey County Jail on Aug. 7, 2022, the lawsuit states. Correctional officers and medical staff noted that he had a “visible injury to his forehead,” but they failed to note he had hemophilia — a condition that causes blood to not clot properly — despite it being documented in his inmate files.
Over the next several hours, Bakke would be observed exhibiting “odd behaviors” and yelling in pain — but he was ignored, according the wrongful-death lawsuit filed Aug. 29 in the U.S. District of Minnesota. Two days later, he’d be found unconscious in his jail cell.
Weeks later, Bakke died of related brain injuries, according to attorneys representing Bakke’s mother, Teresa Marie Schnell.
As Bakke’s next of kin, Schnell is suing Ramsey County and four sheriff’s office correctional officers. The lawsuit alleges they violated his Fourteenth Amendment rights by not providing adequate medical treatment.
McClatchy News requested comment from the county and sheriff’s office on Aug. 30 and was awaiting a response.
Bakke, 37, was a graphic designer, artist and long-term care facility caregiver before he died, according to his obituary. He also considered himself a political activist.
“It was avoidable,” attorney Richard Student told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. “Had they done anything, they would have been able to get Dillon medical care, they would have saved his life. Instead, 30 hours goes by without anybody doing anything.”
One of the officers noted that Bakke began “moaning loudly in the middle of the night saying that he’s in pain” on Aug. 7, 2022, according to the lawsuit. A nurse checked his vitals at about 1:30 the next morning.
“For multiple hours thereafter, Dillon continued to yell in pain and yell for his mother,” the attorneys wrote. At about 4:45 a.m. he was moved into a segregation cell as he “was causing a disturbance in his cell pod.”
The four officers had to carry the pretrial detainee to his new cell as he couldn’t stand or walk, according to the lawsuit. In their incident reports, the officers wrote that Bakke “refused to stand or walk on his own and was passively resisting.”
“These self-serving statements are false, and are contradicted by relevant body worn camera and jail surveillance recordings that show Dillon was obviously unable to walk or stand on his own, was in severe pain, and was fully cooperative,” attorneys said, adding that nobody requested medical treatment.
At about 10:15 a.m. on Aug. 9, 2022 — the day Bakke was scheduled for release — a correctional officer found him “lying on the floor in a pool of urine, unconscious and unresponsive,” the lawsuit states. The officer called for help, and Bakke was taken to a hospital.
He was rushed into an emergency surgery after imaging revealed brain hemorrhaging and related injuries, attorneys said, but he never regained consciousness. He was pronounced dead on Aug. 27, 2022.
The attorneys representing his mother are seeking $3.165 million in damages, records show.
“Dillon was a bright and creative soul, and he will forever be remembered ... not only as a great artist, but also as a son, brother, uncle, cousin, and friend,” according to his obituary.
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