{"id":340393,"date":"2026-09-08T04:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T04:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/340393\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T04:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T04:04:10","slug":"cleveland-county-may-approve-20-million-settlement-in-cookie-queens-jail-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/340393\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland County may approve $20 million settlement in Cookie Queen\u2019s jail death"},"content":{"rendered":"

NORMAN, OKLA (KOKH) \u2014 Cleveland County commissioners could approve a $20 million settlement Tuesday tied to the death of Shannon Hanchett, a Norman baker known as the \u201cCookie Queen\u201d and owner of The Cookie Cottage.<\/p>\n

The proposed settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by Daniel Hanchett, Shannon Hanchett\u2019s husband, against the Cleveland County sheriff in connection with her death inside the Cleveland County Detention Center.<\/p>\n

Shannon Hanchett was arrested in November 2022 and accused of making false 9-1-1 calls and obstructing an officer. After spending less than two weeks in jail, she died Dec. 8 of natural causes inside the detention center.<\/p>\n

After her death, lawmakers and residents raised concerns about her mental health while she was in custody, arguing that jail should not be the holding place for someone in a mental health crisis.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Daniel Hanchett filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of her estate, claiming she was suffering from mental health issues and did not receive the care she needed.<\/p>\n

AMENDED COMPLAINTPDF previewPreview PDF<\/p>\n

AMENDED COMPLAINT<\/p>\n

View PDF<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, nearly four years later, the case is nearing a resolution. Under the proposed agreement, $2 million would come from the county\u2019s insurance. The remaining $18 million would be paid by Cleveland County in three yearly installments of $6 million through annual sinking fund tax levies.<\/p>\n

RELEASE OF ALL CLAIMS AND SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT PDF previewPreview PDF<\/p>\n

RELEASE OF ALL CLAIMS AND SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT <\/p>\n

View PDF<\/a><\/p>\n

Cynthia Rogers, a Norman resident, said the settlement would ultimately fall on taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaxpayers are paying the price for this tragedy and then the lawsuit settlement. So if your county commissioners and your county sheriff and they\u2019re not doing their jobs properly. So maybe that\u2019s just a wake-up call for people to pay a little more attention to what the county guys are doing because it will cost you, right? They lose, they have a big settlement. It comes out of the sinking funds. So we see that on our property taxes,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n

Rogers also pointed to accountability and Hanchett\u2019s treatment while in custody.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people mostly are still mad and sad that Shannon was treated the way she was. And she died the way she died, you know, alone in prison, needing medical help and not getting it right,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n

Rogers called Hanchett\u2019s death \u201ctragic\u201d and said she believes jail was not the appropriate place for someone in crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened to Shannon was tragic. You know, she left her boys without a mom. The community, you know, without her voice and her presence and how it happened was also very tragic. There\u2019s no reason that somebody who was in crisis, even the police report said she was in crisis, should have been taken to jail,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n

Cleveland County commissioners are scheduled to meet Tuesday at 1 p.m. and will discuss whether to move forward with the settlement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORMAN, OKLA (KOKH) \u2014 Cleveland County commissioners could approve a $20 million settlement Tuesday tied to the death…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-340393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}