Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy now says his office will review all criminal cases involving the former police officers accused in the brutal beating death of Tyre Nichols.
He may have no other choice.
Cases involving the five black officers could be in limbo as defense attorneys raise important questions about the possibility of corrupt policing practices.
“This is just the beginning,” Erica Williams, spokeswoman for Mulroy, told CNN. “This involves any criminal case that [the officers] were involved in. It is any case where there were criminal charges that were brought by the DA anytime since they became officers.”
The five officers — Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Demetrius Haley. Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean — have all been charged with second-degree murder and several other felonies. They are accused of fatally beating Nichols after they pulled his car over near Nichols’ mother’s home on Jan. 7. The 29-year-old black man died three days later at a Memphis hospital.
The former officers are set to be arraigned next week on seven counts, including aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated kidnapping in possession of a deadly weapon, official misconduct and official oppression. Another officer, Preston Hemphill, who assisted at the scene, has been fired but not criminally charged.
As The New York Times reported, the arrest of the officers could lead to a cascade of criminal cases being dismissed and convictions appealed, as defense attorneys in the city weigh challenging reports and testimony brought by the now-defunct police unit of which the officers were a part.
The officers were members of the notorious SCORPION — Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods — unit.<
Mayor Jim Strickland once praised the crime-fighting unit and its officers, noting a little over a year ago the hundreds of felony arrests and the $100,000-plus in cash seized at the time.
Some defense attorneys are now compiling a roster of the unit, which could imperil hundreds of cases in and around Memphis, The Times reported.
“Just because someone served in the Scorpion unit doesn’t mean they did anything wrong,” Mike Working a criminal defense lawyer and the former president of the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, told the publication. “But it’s worth a second look, at minimum.”
The trouble has already begun for the city of Memphis, whose taxpayers could be facing an exorbitant legal bill.
Earlier this week, Monterrious Harris filed a lawsuit against the city and the five former officers charging the officers assaulted him three days before Nichols’ death, Axios reported.
Harris alleges the conduct of the Scorpion unit formed “a clear pattern” of police abuse and a constitutional violation against black men in Memphis.
As Axios reported, the lawsuit claims Harris was swarmed by a “large group of assailants” wearing black balaclavas and black clothing and brandishing firearms and other weapons while he was inside a vehicle on the night of Jan. 4.
- They hurled expletives and made threats to end his life if he did not exit his car before enacting “a swift, violent, and continuous physical assault on Mr. Harris that included punching, stomping, and dragging him across concrete” after Harris got out of the vehicle, the lawsuit alleges.
- The lawsuit asserts that Harris did not know the assailants were officers at the time and they didn’t identify themselves, believing instead that he was a victim of a carjacking. He said he only learned later that they were 0fficers with the SCORPION Unit.
- The lawsuit claims that after the alleged assault, which was interrupted by witnesses, the police charged Harris with “a host of false criminal charges” and that he did not receive medical attention and treatment for his injuries until he arrived at a jail.
“The current ignoble chapter of the Memphis Police Department ending with the violent and unconstitutional beatings of Mr. Harris, other Memphians and the death of Mr. Nichols, began decades ago,” the lawsuit states.
Demetrius Haley, one of the five officers charged in the killing of Nichols, was accused of beating an inmate in the Shelby County Division of Corrections while working as a prison guard. Cordarlrius Sledge filed a lawsuit in 2016, alleging Haley and another officer punched him in the face during a search for a cellphone, according to court records. He accused a third guard of slamming him face-first into a sink, The New York Post reported.
The lawsuit was dismissed after Sledge failed to file requested information.
“I had some contraband on me and I was trying to flush it down the toilet but they didn’t follow protocol. Haley was the most vicious,” he told The Post.
“That could have been me,” he said, referring to Nichols death.
As The Tennessee Star has reported, investigators are looking into rumors that Nichols was targeted by the former police officers because he had a relationship with Haley’s ex-wife.
Haley used his personal smartphone to take photos of the handcuffed and bloodied Nichols on the night of his arrest, according to records released on Tuesday.
“[Haley] admitted [he] shared the photo in a text message with five people; one civilian employee, two MPD officers, and one female acquaintance,” the document states.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Demetrius Haley”, photo “Tadarrius Bean”. photo “Desmond Mills, Jr”. photo “Emmitt Martin III”. and photo “Justin Smith” by Memphis Police Department est.1827. Background Photo “Courtroom” by Carol M. Highsmith.
