A federal lawsuit alleges a Cottage Grove man died last year after Eagan police officers mistook “classic stroke signs and symptoms” for possible drug use and Dakota County jail corrections officers did nothing while he was in custody.
Kingsley Fifi Bimpong, 50, suffered a stroke sometime before he drove his car onto a median on Nov. 16 in Eagan. Bimpong, who had just left his job as a postal employee, was then arrested after Eagan officers suspected drug or alcohol impairment and held in custody for five hours and 40 minutes, despite “exhibiting obvious physical and cognitive abnormalities that required urgent medical attention,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Minnesota.
After being found unresponsive in a cell at the Dakota County jail, Bimpong was taken to United Hospital in St. Paul, where it was determined that he was brain dead. Bimpong’s family members, some of whom live in his homeland of Ghana, were contacted and decided to take him off a ventilator on Nov. 19, the lawsuit says.
Kingsley Fifi Bimpong (Courtesy of Robins Kaplan LLP)
“What this comes down to is the defendants’ acted on incorrect and unfounded assumptions that led to their callous indifference, which then resulted in Kingsley’s death,” said attorney Katie Bennett of Robins Kaplan, which is representing Bimpong’s family.
The lawsuit, which also names jail corrections officers, alleges Bimpong’s civil rights were violated and seeks in excess of $40 million for compensatory and punitive damages.
“The complaint paints a dire picture of what Kingsley went through, and those numbers are intended to signal the seriousness and the severity of the case,” Bennett said.
Drug test not completed
According to the lawsuit, Bimpong left his job at the post office because of a headache and decreased vision. Around 10:45 p.m., Eagan police officer Joseph Moseng saw him turn left on a red light, drive into oncoming traffic and onto the center median.
Bimpong was confused and couldn’t tell the officer his name or where he lived. He didn’t respond to directions from the officer to shut off his car or hand over his car keys. He was off-balance and stumbled when he exited his car. The officer noted that he did not smell of alcohol.
“Upon first contact, it was obvious something was very wrong, and the evidence of (Bimpong’s) disconcerting condition only increased with each passing moment,” the lawsuit says.
Two more officers, Liam O’Shea and Martin Jensen, arrived on scene. Jensen was a drug recognition expert, but failed to complete all of the 12 steps of an evaluation used to determine if a person is under the influence of drugs, the lawsuit says.
“All Jensen did was use his flashlight to look at (Bimpong’s) eyes and note that (he) could not complete the field sobriety testing, which in and of itself dictated that (he) required medical care,” the lawsuit states.
Officer body-worn camera video showed that Bimpong could not complete the testing because he had difficulty walking, remained off balance and continued to be unable to understand or follow simple directions.
Moseng was heard telling Jensen that he was “still not convinced that this isn’t medical related more than impairment related.”
Around 11 p.m., officers arrested Bimpong, who had no criminal history, and took him to the Eagan Police Department for a blood draw, “even though the totality of the circumstances observed by the officers completely undermined any probable cause,” according to the lawsuit.
Once there, Bimpong’s health declined while officers obtained a search warrant for his blood. At times, he nodded off to sleep, and his right hand and arm showed signs of weakness.
Around 11:20 pm, Moseng and Jensen again discussed whether Bimpong could be suffering from a medical issue but did not provide him with medical care, according to the lawsuit.
Moseng called Bimpong’s work and was told that he had vanished after complaining of a headache and had left behind his cellphone. One of his co-workers thought he was “losing his mind by how he was acting,” the lawsuit reads.
Moseng then asked Jensen whether they should send Bimpong to a hospital. Jensen replied, “For what?” Jensen reminded Moseng that they would have to put Bimpong on a transport hold, meaning an officer would have to remain with him at the hospital — “something Jensen clearly did not want to do,” the lawsuit says.
“Jensen then switched back to claiming that Kingsley had taken a dissociative drug,” the lawsuit continued.
MHealth medics who arrived at the police station around 11:50 p.m. for the blood draw asked Moseng if the officers planned on transferring Bimpong to a hospital. Moseng replied that he did not know yet.
Around 12:15 a.m., Nov. 17, Jensen told Moseng that a drug recognition evaluation with Bimpong “would just be a whole bunch of time wasted,” the lawsuit states. A check of Bimpong’s pulse or other vital signs were not taken.
With the blood draw complete, the officers decided to take Bimpong to jail. He struggled to get into the squad car — Jensen had to put his right foot into the car for him. Around this time, Moseng had shut off his body-worn camera, but Jensen had not. Jensen went back around to the driver’s side of his squad and approached Moseng, who said: “Before you got there, I was like, is this dude having a stro … ” “Stroke” is cut off because Jensen muted his body-worn camera “as quickly as he could,” the lawsuit alleges.
At the jail
Jensen and Bimpong arrived at the county jail in Hastings around 12:45 a.m., two hours after Bimpong drove his car onto the median.
The jail’s surveillance video reportedly had no audio in November 2024, according to the lawsuit, which adds that was “unusual” among the state’s county jails. Moreover, the county reportedly only kept selected portions of jail surveillance video during Bimpong’s time at the jail.
“Given his classification, medical condition and subsequent hospitalization and death, the county was required to preserve all video from (Bimpong’s) incarceration,” the lawsuit states. “In fact, Minnesota Administrative Rules mandated that the jail preserve all such video.”
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But the jail surveillance video that “snuck through” showed jail officers repeatedly watching as Bimpong needed help to keep his balance during booking. In his booking paperwork, it was “incorrectly noted” that Bimpong had a “language barrier” and could not communicate.
“Instead, (Bimpong) could not verbally or otherwise communicate … in any meaningful way because he was suffering from a medical emergency,” the lawsuit says.
Once in his cell, jail officers continued to watch his suffering — mostly of him writhing on the floor, lying in his own urine — for nearly 3½ hours until he was unresponsive, cold to the touch and foaming at the mouth, according to the lawsuit.
Bimpong was first taken by ambulance to Regina Hospital in Hastings, where he arrived at 5:21 a.m., then to United Hospital.
An autopsy by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Bimpong died of a brain bleed caused by a ruptured blood vessel. Toxicology findings were negative, except for the medication which had been administered as part of his hospitalization.
County, correctional officers also named
In addition to the three Eagan officers, the lawsuit names as defendants Dakota County and correctional officers Eduardo Decache, Brittany Corbin, Ramsey Strickland, Manuel Hernandez, Heather Hedden, Christopher Severson and Lucio Manuel Marquez Zazueta.
Vicki Hruby, an attorney representing the Eagan officers, said in an emailed statement on behalf of the city that, “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 officers have not been served with the lawsuit, Hruby said; “factual responses” to the allegations will be filed in federal court.
Dakota County Sheriff Joe Leko responded to an email seeking comment, “there will be a time when we will provide our response and position in this case, but being this case is under active litigation, we are unable to provide comment while the legal process is ongoing.”
Four months before Bimpong’s death, a lawsuit was filed in federal court against Dakota County and 10 of its corrections staff alleging they left Caleb Duffy, a 22-year-old Farmington man, in a padded cell naked and covered in his own feces, blood, urine and vomit for nearly 20 hours in July 2022 while his mental and physical health deteriorated to the point he was hospitalized in critical condition. That case is pending, with a status conference scheduled for Oct. 28.
