Lawsuit: Days before Nichols, officers beat man, 22
The 5 former cops and unnamed police, city are being sued for $5M
A man who says he was beaten by Memphis police officers in the SCORPION Unit three days before officers in the unit fatally beat Tyre Nichols has filed a federal lawsuit alleging civil rights violations.
Filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Memphis, the suit lists the City of Memphis, plus the five former police officers facing charges in Nichols’ death, and additional unnamed police officers as defendants. The suit seeks $5 million in damages and a jury trial.
Bringing the suit is Monterrious Harris, a 22-yearold Black man who lives in Hickory Hill, the same southeast Memphis neighborhood where Nichols lived and was beaten near his family home. He is represented by attorneys with local Spence Partners: Robert L.J. Spence, Jr., Jarrett M.D. Spence and Andrew M. Horvath.
The suit claims institutional failures of the City of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department which attorneys say should have known that police officers in the SCORPION Unit “were routinely assaulting, using excessive force, unlawfully detaining, unlawfully arresting and/or falsely charging persons with crimes without a legal and/or constitutional justification.”
Created under Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis’ tenure at the police department in November 2021, the SCORPION Unit is an acronym for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods. The unit was permanently disbanded after Nichols’ death and is, like the rest of the police department and its special units, currently under review.
The unit was tasked with lowering crime through saturation patrolling of high-crime areas. Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean — former officers who have been charged with second-degree murder in Nichols’ death — were part of the unit and are listed as defendants in the federal suit.
In the complaint, attorneys for Harris list what they describe as examples of “unconstitutional treatment of citizens” by the police brought to light by federal suits over the last decade which have challenged the department’s practices.
“Unfortunately, civil judgments, permanent injunctions, appointment of court monitors, and mandated constitutional re-training have not been effective in curtailing Defendant City of Memphis’ unconstitutional policing, as its abuses of citizens through policing remains unabated and has now reached a new level of shocking depravity,” the suit alleges.
Nichols’ beating death, the suit says, has ignited “a fire to completely – and perhaps finally – expose and extricate police abuses in Memphis. Like a grain of wheat, Mr. Nichols fell to the earth and died; but his death is hopefully slowly bearing fruit.”
The suit alleges SCORPION Unit officers would, without legal justification, yell racial slurs at young Black men and physically assault them during traffic stops in areas the unit patrolled. The suit also alleges the Memphis Police Department trained officers to reposition body cameras during these events to “shield its actions from the public” and also trained officers with the unit to then falsify reports of what took place.
“The Scorpion Unit was not a rogue unit or a unit comprised of a ‘few bad apples.’ All of its actions were performed at the behest of the Memphis Police Department and Defendant City of Memphis,” the suit alleges.
The City of Memphis told The Commercial Appeal “it the city’s practice to not to comment on pending litigation.”
Harris thought he was being robbed before ski-masked officers beat him, suit says
The suit claims officers of the SCORPION Unit beat Harris and falsified reports about the interactions in an encounter that “was legally unjustified, unquestionably unconstitutional, and unacceptable in any civilized society.”
“The unlawful assault will negatively impact Mr. Harris for the rest of his life,” Harris’ attorney wrote in the complaint.
According to the complaint, Harris, who first shared his encounter with police in a story with NBC News, drove over to visit a cousin in an apartment complex in Hickory Hill. Harris’ cousin got in the car and brought his registered firearm, but Harris didn’t know a weapon was in the car. His cousin went back inside the house to grab a jacket and a different pair of shoes before the two men went Downtown.
Shortly after his cousin went back inside, Harris backed the car into a parking space, according to the complaint. It was then that “five or six masked men” surrounded the vehicle, waved pistols, and demanded Harris “exit the car or ‘be shot’.” The suit alleges these men are officers with the SCORPION Unit.
No police department paraphernalia was visible, Harris alleges. The men never asked for his license or registration as they “hurled racial epithets” at him.
“Harris reasonably concluded that he was being robbed,” attorneys write in the federal complaint.
Harris tried to back the car up and flee, but could not, so he got out of the car with his hands up, hoping he wouldn’t be shot and the men would take the car. It was at this point Harris noticed the men were wearing tactical vests, which he associated with “security guards or some other authority.”
The men then “grabbed, punched, kicked and assaulted” Harris for 1-2 minutes, also slamming his face into a concrete walkway. His injuries included bleeding from the head, a swollen shut left eye, a swollen and bruised right leg, and a gashed left leg.
Harris screamed for his cousin in a call from help, pulling neighbors out of their homes to see what was happening. Officers stopped beating Harris, then handcuffed and arrested him before transporting him to jail.
“But for witnesses coming outside to observe after hearing Mr. Harris’ loud screams, Mr. Harris would likely have suffered the same fate as Mr. Nichols. At a minimum, the assault would have lasted longer and produced more severe injuries,” attorneys write in the complaint.
A person at the jail intake requested Harris be sent to the hospital. He was treated at Regional One, then booked into jail, where he stayed “for multiple days” until his family could collect enough to meet bail. Records show Harris posted a $75,000 bond. Arrest affidavits reviewed by The Commercial Appeal show Harris faced several charges, including a convicted felon in possession of a handgun, drug possession and distribution and evading arrest.
The affidavit lists a detective and seven officers. Five of the officers, the complaint alleges, are the same officers who have been charged with second-degree murder in Nichols’ death.
The arrest affidavit makes no mention of officers’ beating Harris. According to the affidavit, Harris “tried to evade detectives on foot,” “disregarded commands” to stop and “was then detained.”
Laura Testino covers education and children’s issues for the Commercial Appeal. Reach her at laura.testino@commercialappeal.com or 901-512-3763. Find her on Twitter: @Ldtestino