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Prosecutors detail possible expert witnesses in federal case against officers in Tyre Nichols death
Prosecutors detail possible a judge’s deadline, prosecutors revealed in court filings Wednesday potential avenues of trial testimony from Memphis Police Department training instructors, at least one of whom, Juan Gonzalez, taught the officers charged in Nichols’ death.
Prosecutors detail possible expert witnesses in federal case against officers in Tyre Nichols death
Memphis Police Department trainers are prepared to testify in the federal civil rights case against four former Memphis police officers in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols that the officers used force inconsistent with their training and failed to prevent their colleagues from hurting him, court documents showed. While meeting the judge’s deadline, prosecutors revealed in a court filing Wednesday a possible opportunity to obtain testimony from Memphis Police Department instructors, at least one of whom, Juan Gonzalez, told Nichols. He gave explanations to the police officers charged in the death of . During a traffic stop on Jan. 7, 2023, police video showed officers pulling Nichols from his vehicle after he was stopped on suspicion of reckless driving. Nichols was pepper sprayed and shot with a Taser, but managed to escape and flee to his nearby home. Video shows that the officers caught up with Nichols and assaulted him, punching, kicking and hitting him with a baton. He died in the hospital three days later. The Memphis Police Chief said the department could not explain the reason for the stop.
Prosecutors said Gonzalez taught at the training academy for more than 20 years. If allowed, Gonzalez will testify that the use of force used against Nichols was inconsistent with 21 weeks of training at the police academy and subsequent on-the-job training, prosecutors said. “For example, Mr. Gonzalez will testify that the officers should have asked for Mr. Tire-Nichols’ driver’s license and registration instead of immediately removing him from the vehicle,” the filing states. Mr. Gonzalez will also testify that the officers who struck Mr. Nichols used force that was not part of their training. They were taught to “use manipulative techniques to control subjects rather than harm them,” according to the filing. “The defendants should have handcuffed Nichols, called a lieutenant, called the fire department, and placed Nichols in the back seat of their patrol car…The punches, kicks, and baton footage captured on video were used to demonstrate restraint and handcuffs. “It was inconsistent with the technology,” the prosecutor said, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
A list of potential witnesses was presented by prosecutors in the federal civil rights case against Tadarius Beane, 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 of using excessive force, depriving Nichols of her rights by failing to intervene, and obstruction of justice by witness tampering. They were also charged with second-degree murder in state court. Mills pleaded guilty in the federal case in November. Mills plans to plead guilty in state court and may testify against four former co-workers who have pleaded not guilty. Nichols was black. Five police officers are also black. The four defendants will go on trial in federal court in May and in state court in August. Haley’s lawyers had filed a motion with U.S. District Judge Mark Norris asking him to exclude expert testimony from the federal trial. Michael Stengel argued that prosecutors missed a deadline to obtain expert testimony. According to the motion, prosecutors told Stengel that “the United States does not intend to submit expert testimony at this time,” but that they would notify him of any changes.
Stengel asked Norris to bar prosecutors from using experts to discuss Nichols’ cause of death, toxicology and DNA test results, whether the officers used unreasonable force, and whether any “alleged force” used against Nichols resulted in his injury or death. Norris had ordered prosecutors to produce a list of proposed expert witnesses by Wednesday, but he has not ruled on the motion by Haley’s lawyer. Prosecutors said another possible witness, retired police department legal advisor and instructor Zayid Saleem, plans to testify he taught officers that they could be prosecuted or sued for failing to intervene and prevent another officer from using excessive force.Saleem discussed with officers the case of George Floyd, a Black man who died in May 2020, after a white officer kneeled on his neck on the street outside a Minneapolis convenience store, prosecutors said. The officer, Derek Chauvin, pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge, and three other officers were convicted in a 2022 federal trial of violating Floyd’s civil rights. Saleem “specifically addressed the fact that the officer who used force on Mr. Floyd was convicted of a crime and the officers who stood by and watched the incident also were found guilty,”
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