Louisville family receives $1.25 million settlement after woman left unchecked in jail kills herself

LOUISVILLE, Ky., (WDRB) -- The family of a Louisville woman who hanged herself in Metro Corrections after she was left unsupervised for several hours while locked in a small "attorney booth" has been paid $1.25 million by the city to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.

Stephanie Dunbar was booked into the jail on Nov. 20, 2021, and died on Dec. 4.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in February, claimed staffers should have been aware of Dunbar's mental health and medical needs but instead left her unchecked for hours in an unventilated room without water, a toilet or bed.

Dunbar’s family also settled with the jail’s medical providers but the amount is not available under the Kentucky Open Records law.

Inmates like Dunbar are required to be checked on every 20 minutes, according to the lawsuit.

She was locked in the attorney booth for more than 18 hours without access to a toilet and ultimately hanged herself in her soiled underwear, the lawsuit claimed.

The settlement agreement, obtained through open records, stipulates that the city disputes any liability or fault. The case was dismissed in October.

The lawsuit, citing an internal investigation, alleged that one of the officers gave Dunbar the finger as she pleaded for help and another ignored her when she was seen standing on a bench holding a pair of pants up towards a ceiling vent.

The lawsuit also claimed several officers did not follow the jail's observation policies for detoxing inmates.

And officers forged entries in the observation log, "documenting observations" that did not happen, according to the suit.

"The events surrounding the isolation of Stephanie Dunbar inside of a temporary holding area shows a complete breakdown of the system within the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections, from the sworn officers on the jail floors to the Director of the LMDC," an LMPD investigator concluded, according to a summary of the investigation.

Former Dir. Dwayne Clark, among other officials and officers, as well as the jail’s medical provider were named in the suit.

This story may be updated.