Snohomish County will pay $2.5 million to the mother of a 32-year-old man who died in the county jail in Everett during opioid withdrawal in December 2022, after a federal lawsuit alleged staff failed to monitor him or provide prescribed medication.

The settlement, reached earlier in August, resolves a civil rights and negligence lawsuit filed in January 2025 by Peggy Krause on behalf of her son Sean Hanchett. The county did not admit liability. The payout comes from county funds.

Hanchett was booked into the Snohomish County Jail on Dec. 10, 2022, by Edmonds Police on a fourth-degree assault charge. He had been diagnosed with opioid use disorder and prescribed Suboxone at Swedish Edmonds Hospital before booking, according to the Daily Herald, which first reported the settlement Thursday, Aug. 20.

The lawsuit alleged the booking nurse did not include Hanchett's Suboxone prescription and he never received it in custody. Staff knew of his addiction history from a prior incarceration at the same facility, the complaint stated.

Hanchett was housed in a single-occupancy cell the lawsuit described as solitary confinement. He received no regular medical monitoring, the suit alleged.

On the afternoon of Dec. 11, corrections staff found Hanchett dead next to a puddle of vomit.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner ruled the death "natural," citing "complications of chronic fentanyl and methamphetamine use." Toxicology found both substances in Hanchett's system but at levels not consistent with overdose, according to the county's own Unexpected Fatality Review report published April 3, 2023.

That same review committee found "no fault" in the jail's medical response and concluded welfare checks were conducted "timely and in accordance with policy." Yet the committee recommended the jail explore bio-sensor monitoring technology for detox inmates and equip all staff with Narcan, expanding beyond the prior practice of only medical personnel carrying it.

The report also noted no surveillance cameras existed inside detox unit cells, meaning no recording captured Hanchett's final hours.

Settlement terms and reforms

Dreveskracht, the Seattle-based attorney who represented the Hanchett estate, said the jail has made "significant policy reforms" in connection with the death, beyond the financial payout. He did not specify which reforms were implemented.

"She wanted to make sure this didn't happen again to someone else's family," Dreveskracht said of Krause's motivation.

The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office declined to comment, referring questions to the prosecutor's office. Chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney Bridget Casey said in an email that the jail regularly reviews and updates policies based on operational experience and that the facts of Hanchett's case "contributed to that process."

The county did not admit wrongdoing. Krause agreed to drop claims against other parties named in the case.

Broader pattern

The Daily Herald reported in January 2024 that a fourth inmate had died in the Snohomish County Jail since September 2023. Hanchett's death in December 2022 preceded that cluster.

The lawsuit pointed to policy failures, funding shortages and staffing shortages as contributing conditions, according to court filings. Those allegations were never adjudicated; the case settled before trial.

No further hearings or public proceedings are scheduled.