One of the officers allegedly involved in the death of Tyre Nichols has been accused of brutality before. 

Former Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley, who was fired Friday in connection with Nichols’ death, was accused in a federal lawsuit in 2016 of beating an inmate at the Shelby County Correctional Center where he worked as a guard. The suit was later dismissed when the inmate, Cordarlrius Sledge, failed to respond to a motion to dismiss.

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Sledge was represented in the case pro se, or by himself, without a lawyer. 

In Sledge’s handwritten suit against Haley and two other correctional officers, he alleged that guards conducted a random search in May 2015 after smelling smoke in his cell block, where officers alleged Sledge, who was in the first three months of a three year sentence for four aggravated assault charges, had flushed contraband. 

“I stripped down for them, and I had my cellphone in my draws,” Sledge, now 34, told The Daily Memphian in a phone interview Sunday. “When I made it to my draws, (a guard) was asking me for them. ... I ran out the bathroom back into the dorm area to make them chase me away from the toilet. So as they chased me away from the toilet, I ended up back by the toilet. And I flushed the phone. 

“They were mad that I got away from them and flushed my phone. So they started punching me and picked me up.”

According to Sledge’s complaint, Haley and another guard punched him in the face, and the supervisor picked him up and slammed his face into the sink before throwing him to the floor. Sledge said he blacked out and woke up in a medical unit. 

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U.S. District Court Judge S. Thomas Anderson dismissed Sledge’s suit in 2018 after he failed to respond to a motion by the defendants for summary judgment and directives from the court. Haley was hired by MPD later that same year.

Sledge told a reporter he did not respond because he was incarcerated in Lee County, Virginia. He said he was released a month ago. The Daily Memphian could not find court records to confirm that. 

Sledge said he is planning on looking into the case to see if he can reopen it. 

Haley, 30, could not be reached for comment.

Email and phone attempts Monday to reach a spokesperson for the Shelby County Division of Corrections were unsuccessful. 

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Haley was one of five MPD officers who faced disciplinary action and was later fired following a Saturday, Jan. 7, traffic stop that led to the death of Nichols, 29, three days later. Authorities have not spelled out what specific role Haley allegedly played in the incident.

Following Nichols’ interaction with police, MPD initially said officers were attempting to stop Nichols for reckless driving. A tweet from MPD stated there was a “confrontation” as officers approached Nichols, and that he fled on foot. They caught up to Nichols, and there was another confrontation before he was in police custody.

After Nichols complained of shortness of breath, an ambulance was called, and Nichols was transported to Saint Francis Hospital in critical condition.