Cleveland County commissioners are set to vote at 1 p.m. Tuesday on a $20 million settlement with Daniel Hanchett over the 2022 death of his wife, Shannon Hanchett, inside the Cleveland County Detention Center. A Norman bakery owner, Shannon Hanchett was 38 when she died in custody, and her family has spent nearly four years fighting to hold the county and its jail health contractor accountable.
According to OU Daily, Cleveland County commissioners were set to consider a $20 million settlement. The county would cover the settlement through payments carrying an annual interest rate of 3.98%, spread across three annual installments from 2027 through 2029. County officials have said the settlement payment is not an admission of guilt or liability by the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office.
Hanchett was a Norman bakery owner. She was jailed for making false 911 calls, and an arrest report noted she was exhibiting signs of mental illness. Her family did not post her $1,000 bond, out of fear she might be a danger to herself or others, according to the same account.
A Fatal Discovery Before a Scheduled Evaluation
Jail staff discovered Hanchett unresponsive just after midnight on December 8, 2022 — less than eight hours before she was scheduled for a court-ordered mental health evaluation. She was pronounced dead at the scene, and the state medical examiner's report ruled the cause of death was heart failure, with psychosis and severe dehydration cited as significant contributing factors, per the report.
Daniel Hanchett later filed a federal lawsuit over Shannon Hanchett's death. Judge Bernard Jones dismissed the lawsuit and gave Hanchett a September 9 deadline to refile. Hanchett then filed an amended complaint, and his attorney, Daniel Smolen, has said that video footage obtained through the litigation showed how preventable Shannon Hanchett's death was.
The amended complaint cited closed-circuit surveillance footage that county officials had initially refused to release under the Oklahoma Open Records Act, footage that attorneys later obtained under a federal protective order, according to First Watch. The lawsuit alleged detailed failures in Hanchett's medical care and the handling of her records. Smolen has said Hanchett was treated in an inhumane way, and separately said financial incentives and a lack of staff training contributed to several deaths of mentally ill detainees at jails staffed by TK Health personnel. The complaint seeks to hold Cleveland County officials and TK Health liable for unconstitutional living conditions and deliberate indifference.
A Pattern State Inspectors Documented
Hanchett's death was not isolated. Less than two weeks later, 66-year-old detainee Kathryn Milano died on December 20, 2022, after suffering a medical emergency while also awaiting a court-ordered mental health evaluation at the same jail, a pattern the OU Daily's reporting has tied to broader concerns about vulnerable detainees in county custody. Oklahoma Department of Health inspection reports from that December found that detention center staff had failed to conduct or document mandatory 15-minute suicide checks and hourly inmate checks on the day Hanchett died, according to The Norman Transcript.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ “Census of Jails, 2005–2019 – Statistical Tables,” more than half (53%) of all local jails at midyear 2019 provided work release or prerelease programs. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that 26% of local jails at midyear 2019 had mental health or psychiatric functions.
TK Health, the contractor at the center of the allegations, ultimately ended its 16-year relationship with the jail. The company submitted a termination notice in March 2025, and its contract expired June 30, 2025, following widespread lawsuits against it across Oklahoma and neighboring states, as reported by The Frontier.
Insurance Losses and Financing Questions
The financial implications extend beyond the settlement itself. An insurance carrier notified Cleveland County in March 2024 that it would not renew the county's liability policy, a decision county leadership attributed directly to the rise in inmate deaths and pending lawsuits, according to the same Frontier reporting. Commissioners have said they will explore additional funding methods to minimize increased property taxes.
This isn't the first jail death to rattle Cleveland County leadership this year. Matthew Alexander Willbanks died at the Cleveland County Detention Center in August 2026, a case Hoodline reported as two agencies launched a death probe, marking at least the 12th inmate death associated with the facility since 2022. Darrell Weaver became Cleveland County sheriff in July 2026 and has said the sheriff's office would do everything possible to keep everyone in the facility safe.
Weaver inherited the post after former Sheriff Chris Amason resigned in April 2026. Amason ultimately pleaded no contest to one felony count of embezzlement tied to misuse of campaign funds, a case Hoodline covered when Amason resigned effective immediately. If commissioners approve the $20 million figure Tuesday, it will close one chapter of the Hanchett family's fight while the county's broader jail crisis remains far from resolved.
