Lawsuit: Minnesotan Died After Eagan, Dakota County Law Enforcement Ignored Serious Stroke Symptoms

By Mary Hennigan, Minnesota Reformer

October 14, 2025

A lawsuit filed by Minneapolis-based law firm Robins Kaplan LLP Thursday alleged several local and county officers ignored critical medical symptoms that led to a man’s death in November 2024.

Filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of the family of the late Kingsley Fifi Bimpong, the law firm sued three Eagan police officers, seven Dakota County correctional officers and Dakota County for the death of the 50-year-old Cottage Grove resident. The lawsuit alleges the officers acted with “deliberate indifference” over the course of about five-and-a-half hours while Bimpong grew gravely ill in custody.

Rosalind Marie Lewis, the mother of Bimpong’s child, and Josephine Adu-Gyane, a cousin, are seeking $120 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The case demands a jury trial.

Bimpong’s final hours were captured by police officers’ body cameras and the jail’s surveillance system. At many times, the complaint states, Bimpong was confused, unable to communicate, and lacked bodily control, which are all early indications of a stroke.

“The shocking deliberate indifference from local authorities stripped Kingsley of his last safeguard: the right to basic medical care,” said Katie Bennett, a Robins Kaplan attorney, in a statement.

Kingsley Fifi Bimpong. Courtesy photo.

The 72-page complaint meticulously details Bimpong’s experience while with law enforcement, from his initial confusion at an evening traffic stop on Nov. 16, 2024, to losing the function of his right arm at the Eagan Police Department and urinating on himself while he laid on the floor of a Dakota County Jail holding cell on Nov. 17, 2024.

The inaction from law enforcement and their failure to seek medical care in response to stroke symptoms resulted in Bimpong’s death, according to the lawsuit.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Eagan officers had not yet been served with the complaint, said attorney Vicki Hruby on behalf of the city of Eagan. Hruby denied that Bimpong showed signs of immediate medical attention during the officers’ interactions with Bimpong on Nov. 16, 2024.

“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 no indication that he required emergent medical treatment,” Hruby said in a statement.

Eagan Police Department

The complaint alleges that Bimpong’s health emergency was immediately evident when Eagan police officer Joseph Moseng stopped Bimpong after he drove into oncoming traffic and onto a median on Nov. 16, 2024. Bimpong was leaving his job at the U.S. Postal Service with what the complaint described as a headache and “decreased vision.”

Body camera footage of the incident shows Bimpong struggling to communicate with the officer, the complaint says. Bimpong couldn’t say his own name, what city he was in, or who the president was, according to the lawsuit.

Eagan police officers Liam O’Shea and Martin Jensen soon joined the scene and found that Bimpong did not have a criminal history and had no evidence of drugs or alcohol in his car, according to the complaint. They attempted to perform a field sobriety test, but Bimpong was unable to complete it as he couldn’t understand officers’ directions or walk properly, the lawsuit says.

Jensen, a “drug recognition evaluator” whose training includes additional hours to thoroughly identify drug impairment, did not perform the full 12-step evaluation to determine if Bimpong was intoxicated — no pulse or vital signs were evaluated, the lawsuit alleges.

Rather than address Bimpong’s apparent health condition, the officers arrested Bimpong and took him to the Eagan Police Department where they worked to obtain a search warrant for his blood, according to court documents. The case stated that while the officers discussed the possibility of Bimpong suffering a medical issue, they did not seek care.

It was during this time that Moseng spoke with Bimpong’s employer at the post office and learned that Bimpong had left all his belongings at work, one of his coworkers thought he was “losing his mind,” and he had been complaining of a headache, according to the lawsuit. The officers also observed Bimpong’s right arm lose its proper function at the police department, the complaint says.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the first signs of a stroke include a headache, weakness in the arm, problems seeing and trouble walking.

The complaint states that when Moseng asked Jensen if Bimpong should receive medical care, Jensen responded defensively and said doing so would result in a transport hold that requires one Eagan officer to stay at the hospital. Jensen purportedly said Bimpong had taken a dissociative drug, the claim states.

Throughout the traffic stop and procedures at the police department, the officers were intermittently muting their body cameras, which the claim states is against the city’s policy.

A city of Eagan policy from 2020 states: “Officers may temporarily pause the recording or mute the audio to exchange information with other law enforcement officers or legal counsel.”

When Jensen and Moseng prepared to transport Bimpong to the Dakota County Jail, the lawsuit states that Jensen muted his equipment just as Moseng told him, “Before you got there, I was like, ‘Is this dude having a stro—’”

The complaint alleges that Moseng reacted to having admitted this to Jensen by pulling his winter hat over his face, shrugging and either laughing or smiling.

Hruby, the attorney representing the city of Eagan, noted in her statement to the Reformer that Bimpong “exhibited signs of drug intoxication, including unsteady gait, confusion, and a thousand-yard stare.” Hruby also said that Bimpong spent 17 minutes with medical professionals before being transported to the Dakota County jail.

Dakota County Jail

Moseng and Jensen transported Bimpong to the Dakota County Jail around 1 a.m. on Nov. 17, 2024, about two hours and 15 minutes after the initial traffic stop with Eagan police. Jensen said that Bimpong had “no issues” upon arrival, the lawsuit claims.

According to the lawsuit, the video surveillance captured at the jail was limited. Although common in other state facilities, the surveillance at Dakota County Jail did not include audio recording or time stamps, the complaint states. The lawsuit also alleges that the county kept select videos from Bimpong’s time at the jail.

The lawsuit names the following correctional officers as defendants in the case: Eduardo Decache, Brittany Corbin, Ramsey Strickland, Manuel Hernandez, Heather Hedden, Christopher Severson and Lucio Manuel Marquez Zazueta.

During the intake process, the officers noted that Bimpong had a language barrier, but the lawsuit states Bimpong spoke English and the problems in communication were caused by his health emergency. The booking papers also note that Bimpong’s medical questionnaire “could not be completed,” the lawsuit says.

The intake process at the jail included Bimpong being assessed by a full-body scanner, but Bimpong was unable to enter the scanner himself. Video footage shows correctional officer Decache forcefully pushing Bimpong into the machine, the lawsuit says.

Video footage shows at least two men helping Bimpong move through the facility during the intake process, as Bimpong seemingly could not move properly on his own.

Alone in the holding cell with one wall made of windows, Bimpong attempted to use the bathroom but hit his head and fell down, exposed, according to the lawsuit. The footage shows Bimpong outstretched on the floor, reaching toward the door. The lawsuit says he remained on the floor for about 45 minutes, while officers are alleged to have been conducting wellness checks and deeming the inmate and the cell OK.

After nearly two hours in the holding cell, Bimpong urinated while on the floor, soaking his pants, the lawsuit says. Footage over the next hour and a half shows Bimpong’s condition worsening as he continued to roll on the floor with a lack of bodily control, according to the complaint. Still, multiple correctional officers conducted wellness checks and noted that Bimpong was OK, the lawsuit says.

After three hours and 22 minutes in the cell, correctional officers Corbin and Decache discussed Bimpong’s well-being, though Decache assured Corbin that Bimpong had been acting the same as he had all night and that the situation was fine, the complaint states.

The lawsuit describes Bimpong as foaming at the mouth at this time.

Minutes later, the lawsuit says, Decache and a nurse entered Bimpong’s holding cell and found him unresponsive. The complaint says Kingsley’s pupils were “pinpoint, fixed, and non-reactive to light.” Additionally, the lawsuit says his tongue was white and protruding from his mouth, while he continued to foam at the mouth; his feet were gray.

Emergency Medical Technicians arrived soon after, and Narcan was administered three times without any effect, indicating there was no drug intoxication, the lawsuit says. A Hastings ambulance arrived at the jail at nearly 5 a.m. and correctional officers carried Bimpong limb-by-limb to a gurney.

At a local hospital, testing showed Bimpong had a large intraparenchymal hemorrhage. “In other words,” the lawsuit reads, “[Bimpong] had a massive brain bleed that had caused his brain to shift and his brain stem to squeeze out of the bottom of his skull.”

With a condition too severe for the local hospital to treat, Bimpong was then transferred to United Hospital around 9:30 a.m., where doctors diagnosed additional severe conditions and neurosurgery indicated it was not possible for Bimpong to improve, the lawsuit reads.

Bimpong remained in the hospital until his death was reported on Nov. 19. An autopsy revealed Bimpong died of a stroke, and the only medications found in his body were those he received at the hospital.

According to the lawsuit, a Department of Corrections investigation into Bimpong’s death found that no correctional officers on staff were up-to-date with their first aid and CPR certifications. Training hadn’t even been offered at the facility since 2022.

Mary Beth Schubert, communications director for Dakota County, declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing the pending litigation.

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