The Guardian (USA)

Officer involved in Tyre Nichols arrest previously accused in assault of prison inmate

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Years before Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley pulled Tyre Nichols from his car on 7 January, setting in motion a deadly confrontat­ion, Haley was accused of taking part in the savage beating of an inmate at a county prison.

The 2015 assault of the inmate was so disturbing that 34 others – the entire cellblock – signed a letter to the correction­s director.

“We are truly asking that this matter gets looked into before someone gets hurt really bad or lose their life because of some unprofessi­onal officers,” the letter stated.

The warning from dozens of inmates at the Shelby county prison is the clearest indication yet that one of the five officers who took part in the violent beating of Nichols had an event in his past that should have raised concerns before he was hired as a police officer. Nichols died three days after the beating.

The letter asks how the inmates are supposed to feel “safe and secure when the staff members at the Shelby County Correction­al Center are assaulting and threatenin­g us”?

It concludes, “Please put a stop to this madness.”

Shelby county did not respond to a request Friday seeking informatio­n about its investigat­ion into the beating allegation­s, so it is unclear if Haley was discipline­d or cleared of the assault. An email was sent Friday to a police spokespers­on asking if the department knew about the allegation­s when Haley was hired.

There is no national database of officers found guilty of misconduct who resign or are fired, meaning in a lot of cases they can apply for jobs in other police agencies and department­s. There is a national database for officers who lose their certificat­ion – the equivalent of their profession­al license to be a police officer in a particular state. That wouldn’t have made a difference in Haley’s case because his job at the county prison didn’t require police certificat­ion.

The former officer has been charged with second-degree murder in Nichols’s death, along with ex-officers Tadarrius Bean, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith. All were fired in connection with Nichols’s death. And all except Bean have infraction­s in their work records.

Policy violations include using minor physical force during an arrest and failing to fill out a form about it; failing to report a domestic violence situation; and a car crash, records show.

The prior accusation­s against Haley came to light because the inmate, Cordarlriu­s Sledge, filed a federal lawsuit in 2016 against him and two others. It accused Haley and another officer of punching him, and a third of slamming his head into the floor. The suit was ultimately dismissed on procedural grounds, because Sledge had failed to file a grievance with the prison, which houses inmates in the Memphis area who have been tried and convicted.

Haley continued to work for the Division of Correction­s until hired by Memphis Police in 2020, at a time when the department was lowering its standards for recruits in an attempt to fill vacancies. According to records in his personnel file, a previous applicatio­n to the police department was rejected, but the reason for that rejection is blacked out.

 ?? Former officer Demetrius Haley. Photograph: MPD/Reuters ??
Former officer Demetrius Haley. Photograph: MPD/Reuters

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