The Ramsey County Board on Tuesday approved a $75,000 settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of Abigail Simpson, who was stabbed to death by her boyfriend in 2020.
Ramsey County settles wrongful death lawsuit for $75,000
The lawsuit alleged a private health care agency and Ramsey County officials failed to monitor a man with mental illness before he murdered his girlfriend.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
September 17, 2024 at 8:47PM
The lawsuit alleged that the county and others failed to monitor Terrion Sherman, who had been treated for his mental illness, before he killed Simpson.
Ramsey County spokesman Casper Hill declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the county does not comment on pending, ongoing or settled litigation.
According to criminal charges against Sherman, St. Paul officers found 21-year-old Simpson dead from multiple stab wounds inside of her apartment on the 300 block of N. Pierce Street on Feb. 26, 2020. Sherman, then 23, stood in the living room covered in blood as police arrived. They arrested and charged Sherman, who stated that his 2-year-old nephew “became possessed by a dog and told Sherman that [Simpson] was really a guy.”
The complaint said Sherman also said he is prescribed medication, but “does not need them, because he is not crazy.”
He was convicted for second-degree murder in October and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
The lawsuit filed by Simpson’s parents alleges that Sherman, whose previous charges include assault and aggravated robbery, was deemed mentally ill and chemically dependent before being committed to the Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center in 2018. Minnesota’s Department of Human Services provisionally discharged Sherman in 2019 to the care of Joyful Home Health Care in Fridley, and Ramsey County was responsible for Sherman’s discharge plan.
But between July of 2019 and the day he killed Simpson, Joyful Home officials reported that Sherman missed 76 days of medication meant to treat his schizophrenia, substance-abuse disorder, psychosis and depression, according to the lawsuit.
“Joyful Home should have known that Sherman’s failure to take his medications as prescribed would cause harm or threaten harm to Sherman or another person,” the lawsuit read, alleging workers should have notified Sherman’s psychiatrist.
Joyful Home declined to comment Tuesday when contacted by the Star Tribune.
St. Paul writer Kao Kalia Yang has won four Minnesota Book Awards and was recognized by the Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts.
