LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Four years after a Louisville mother died a slow painful death in the custody of the Jackson County Jail in Indiana, her family is getting some closure.
Ta'Neasha Chappell's death on July 16, 2021, was part of a yearslong WDRB investigation. It brought protests, several investigations and national headlines as audio recordings and videos emerged showing the 23-year-old begging for help as her condition deteriorated over the course of 20 hours before she died.
Jackson County has now agreed to pay a $5.6 million settlement in her death. According to court documents, commissioners approved the settlement, and the funds are slated to go to her daughter.
Police arrested Chappell in May 2021 for shoplifting and a miles-long police chase that started at the outlet mall in Columbus, Indiana, and ended in a crash on Interstate 65 in Clark County.
The night of July 15, 2021, Chappell fell ill and begged to be taken to the hospital for more than 20 hours, repeatedly telling jail staff "I need help, I need to go to the hospital." Audio recordings confirm she told jail guards she was vomiting blood, needed help and needed to go to the hospital at least 20 times between 8 p.m. that night and when EMS finally arrive around 3:30 p.m. the next day.
Jail nurse Ed Rutan checked on Chappell at the start of his shift a little before 9 a.m. July 16, the day she died. Records show he took vitals and offered her Tylenol, saying she'd have a full medical visit in the afternoon. Chappell didn't make it to that full medical visit with Rutan. Thirty minutes after he left her cell, she was back on the talk box trying to get the guards attention.
Chappell called at 9:20 a.m., reporting that she had vomited in her sleep. As Chappell's cries grew weaker in the early afternoon, she started becoming incoherent and her moans unintelligible.
Jail staff eventually moved her to a room for monitoring. Naked, wobbling and fading, she fell and hit her head on the bunk. This is when they finally acknowledged she needed medical care. It's 2:30 p.m., but she laid on the ground 40 more minutes as the nurse wouldn't go in the cell because she didn't have any clothes on.
He sent two female guards in, but they didn't help her get dressed either.
When EMS finally arrived, Chappell propped herself up on a wall, staggered to the gurney and fell. No one helped her. She was dead at Schneck Medical Center two hours later: 5:42 p.m. July 16, 20 hours after she first called for help.
Records obtained by WDRB News last year revealed some jail staffers admitted they didn't believe she was critically ill, while others ignored her cries. An ambulance wasn't called until Chappell was naked on the floor of her cell and incoherent.
The prosecutor in Jackson County never brought findings to a grand jury to consider if jail staff broke the law.
"No crimes were committed by the Jackson County Jail related to the death of Ta'Neasha Chappell," Prosecutor Jeff Chalfant wrote in a 2021 news release explaining his decision. "Whether a person or entity had a duty of reasonable care are matters of civil law and not criminal law."
The state revoked Rotan's license.
Court documents show that while the lawsuit settlement has been agreed to, there is another formality. It must also be approved by the probate court overseeing Chappell's estate. That's expected in the next two months. The deal states the county will pay up by December of this year.
This story may be updated.
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