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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Lawyers for two former Memphis officers rested their cases Monday without being called to testify in their own defense against charges that they violated the civil rights of Tire Nichols in a beating that proved fatal following a traffic stop in 2023.
The first third on trial could still stand as a witness.
Attorneys for Tadarrius Bean and Demetrius Haley told a jury they were not calling any more witnesses. Michael Stengel, Haley’s lawyer, and John Keith Perry, Bean’s attorney, called their own police use-of-force experts in previous days of testimony in an attempt to justify the officers’ actions during the traffic stop and beat. The trial is now in its fourth week.
Martin Zummach, Justin Smith’s attorney, said in opening statements that Smith would testify in his own defense. Smith has yet to take the stand. On Monday, Zummach questioned Jared Zwickey, who spent 50 years in law enforcement and was called as an expert witness.
Zwikey said he was analyzing video and showed the jury footage of Smith and Bean hitting Nichols when they caught him after he ran from the traffic stop. Zwickey testified that Smith’s actions were consistent with Memphis police and national policing standards and training.
The five officers charged in Nichols’ death were part of the Scorpion Unit, which searched for drugs, illegal guns and violent criminals. It was disbanded after Nichols’ death. Two of them – Desmond Mills and Emmitt Martin – pleaded guilty and testified for prosecutors.
Smith, who is characterized as the leader of the Scorpion Unit One team, said, “hit it,” during the beat. Prosecutors have called witnesses who said that statement went against the department’s policy and training in the context of beating Nichols. Zummach asked Zwickey if that statement was appropriate in Nichols’ situation.
“It would be appropriate if the officer needed assistance,” Zwikey said.
Officers used pepper spray and a Taser on Nichols, who is Black, during a traffic stop, but the 29-year-old ran away, police video shows. Then the five officers, who are also Black, punched, kicked and hit him about a block from his home, as he called for his mother.
Nichols died on January 10, 2023, three days after the beating. An autopsy report shows that Nichols – the father of a boy who is now 7 – died of gunshot wounds to the head. The report describes injuries to the brain, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.
Prosecutors have maintained that officers employed the “street charge” or “running charge” against Nichols because he ran from the traffic stop.
Haley, Bean and Justin Smith pleaded not guilty to federal charges of excessive force, failure to intervene, and obstruction of justice by tampering with witnesses.
The five officers have also been charged with second degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas. A trial date in state court has not been set.
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Associated Press reporter Jonathan Mattise contributed from Nashville, Tennessee.
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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