Prosecutors detail possible expert witnesses in federal case against officers in Tyre Nichols death

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Police Department trainers are prepared to testify in the federal civil rights lawsuit against four former Memphis police officers in the fatal beating of Tire Nichols that the officers used force inconsistent with their training and failed to prevent their colleagues from killing him would hurt, court documents showed.

To meet a judge’s deadline, prosecutors revealed in court filings Wednesday possible avenues for testimony from Memphis Police Department training instructors, at least one of whom, Juan Gonzalez, taught the officers charged in Nichols’ death.

Police video showed officers yanking Nichols from his car during the traffic stop on Jan. 7, 2023, after he was pulled over for alleged reckless driving. Nichols was pepper-sprayed and hit with a stun gun, but he managed to get away and run to his nearby home. Officers caught up with Nichols and punched him, kicked him and hit him with a police baton, video showed. He died in a hospital three days later.

Memphis’ police chief has said the department could not substantiate any reason for the stop.

Prosecutors said Gonzalez has taught at the training academy for more than 20 years. If allowed, Gonzalez will testify that the force used against Nichols was inconsistent with their 21 weeks of police academy training and subsequent field training, prosecutors said.

“For example, Mr. Gonzalez will testify that the officers should have asked Tire Nichols for his driver’s license and registration instead of immediately pulling him from his car,” the filing said.

Gonzalez also plans to testify that the officers who struck Nichols used force that was not part of their training. They were taught “to use manipulation techniques to control the subject, not to harm the subject,” the filing said.

“Defendants should have handcuffed Nichols, called a lieutenant, called the fire department and put Nichols in the backseat of a police car… MPD taught,” prosecutors said.

The list of potential witnesses was presented by prosecutors in the federal civil rights case against Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin and Justin Smith. They, along with a fifth former Memphis officer, Desmond Mills Jr., were fired after Nichols’ death.

The five were indicted in September on federal charges that they deprived Nichols of his rights through excessive force and failure to intervene, and that they obstructed justice through witness tampering. They have also been charged in state court with second-degree murder.

Mills pleaded guilty to federal charges in November. Mills also plans to plead guilty in state court and could testify against his four former colleagues, who have pleaded not guilty.

Nichols was black. The five officers are also black. The four still charged will be tried in federal court in May and in state court in August.

Haley’s attorney had filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Mark Norris to exclude expert testimony during the federal trial. Michael Stengel argued that prosecutors missed a deadline to say they were seeking expert testimony. The motion said prosecutors told Stengel that “the United States does not intend to introduce expert testimony at this time” but that they would advise him if that changed.

Stengel asked Norris to ban prosecutors from hiring experts to discuss Nichols’ cause of death, toxicology and DNA test results, whether the officers used unreasonable force and whether any “alleged force” against Nichols led to his injury or death.

Norris had ordered prosecutors to submit a list of proposed expert witnesses on Wednesday, but he has not yet ruled on Haley’s attorney’s motion.

Prosecutors said another potential witness, retired police legal consultant and instructor Zayid Saleem, plans to testify that he taught officers that they could be prosecuted or charged for failing to intervene and prevent another officer from used excessive force.

Saleem discussed with officers the case of George Floyd, a Black man who died in May 2020 after a white officer knelt on his neck on the street outside a Minneapolis supermarket, prosecutors said. The officer, Derek Chauvin, pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge, and three other officers were convicted in a federal trial in 2022 of violating Floyd’s civil rights.

Saleem “specifically addressed the fact that the officer who used force against Mr. Floyd was convicted of a crime and that the officers who stood by and watched the incident were also found guilty,” the filing said.

Prosecutors can also call doctors who can testify about Nichols’ medical condition, including one who was Nichols’ consulting physician while he was in the hospital.

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a “patterns and practices” investigation into the way Memphis officers use force and make arrests, and whether the department in the predominantly black city engages in racially discriminatory policing.