Inset: Kathleen Galloway-Menke (KCRG). Background: Jovahn Mathis appears in court in connection with the fatal shoving of youth group home worker Kathleen Galloway-Menke (KCCI/YouTube).
An Iowa teenager accused of trying to flee a youth residential facility “violently shoved” a staff member who was attempting to keep him from darting into a heavily traveled street, authorities said. The worker, 50-year-old Kathleen Galloway-Menke, fell and struck her head on the pavement, suffering fatal injuries. Now, her family has filed a lawsuit against the youth home, alleging officials failed to act on repeated concerns about the teen’s aggressive conduct.
“Everyone in my building and my cottage knew,” Chloe Williamson, Galloway-Menke’s daughter, told The Des Moines Register about a month after her mother’s May 2024 death. “We tried telling Ellipsis this was a problem and (the child’s placement) wasn’t the right fit, but we didn’t have the support.”
Court documents reviewed by Law&Crime show Williamson and her sister, Camille Menke, are suing Ellipsis, the Johnston youth group home where their mother was employed. According to the Register, the lawsuit claims Ellipsis was aware that 15-year-old Jovahn Mathis posed a danger and had shown “extremely violent” behavior toward Galloway-Menke and other female staff members, yet failed to intervene.
The petition alleges that Ellipsis personnel “failed to remove Mathis and other dangerous residents from the Ellipsis campus, failed to place them in a more secure or appropriate facility, failed to secure them, failed to protect the staff, including Kathleen, and failed to implement and ensure proper safeguards, procedures, and protocols to protect staff.”
The complaint further points to “inadequate security, chronic understaffing, malfunctioning or unavailable communication devices” and other alleged deficiencies that, the family says, allowed Mathis to leave the facility’s grounds.
Mathis, who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in May 2025, had walked away from the home and was trying to run into traffic when Galloway-Menke stopped him, according to the allegations. Moments later, Mathis attacked her.
“The employee was violently shoved, causing them to fall and strike their head on the ground,” an Occupational Safety and Health Administration fatality report said. “The impact resulted in a fatal blunt head injury.”
The OSHA report says Galloway-Menke was following Mathis after he “eloped from the facility campus into a nearby residential area.” Galloway-Menke died after suffering “an acute subdural hematoma and subarachnoid hemorrhage,” the report says.
Mathis, now 17, was sent to adult court as a youthful offender. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31. The teen is currently locked up at the Iowa Boys State Training School in Eldora.
“Our hearts remain with Kathleen’s family and all those affected by this loss,” Ellipsis CEO Kelly Hannan told the Register in a statement, when reached for comment about the pending lawsuit. “While we cannot comment on the pending litigation, we can state that we are committed to seeking a fair and just outcome in this matter while keeping our focus on the vulnerable youth and families we serve.”
