Nichols’ attorneys want civil trial pushed until late 2026
Tyré Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, claps at a rally for Nichols at the National Civil Rights Museum May 8, 2025. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
The attorneys representing Tyré Nichols’ family and estate want the trial over their civil rights lawsuit against the City of Memphis pushed until late 2026.
On Friday, July 11, the attorneys filed a late-night motion for miscellaneous relief. The filing included a new proposed scheduling order that would change the potential trial date for the years-long civil case to November 2026.
That trial date would be more than three and a half years after five now-former Memphis police officers beat Nichols, who later died from his injuries.
The reasoning behind the proposed changes is simple, at least according to the plaintiffs: The city released reams of evidence towards the end of a window to do so.
For months, the city and Nichols’ attorneys have sparred over the release of videos related to other incidents between residents and the Memphis Police Department.
The plaintiffs claim that while the city eventually released substantial evidence, the documents and videos aren’t labeled. They say a team of 10 staffers is having to search through each video and match it to an incident description.
“In short, despite Plaintiff’s unflagging efforts to enforce the discovery allowed by the court at the Jan. 3, 2025 hearing, the City obstructed that discovery for months and only made substantial production in response to Plaintiff’s November 2024 discovery by July 2025,” the attorneys wrote.
U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman has been assigned to the civil case after Judge Mark Norris recused himself. Lipman set a status conference in the case for July 23.
Norris first recused himself from the officers’ criminal cases, throwing the sentencing dates for the former officers into limbo, and then later from two more cases involving lawyers on the Nichols case.
The reason for Norris’ recusals remains unclear.
Topics
Tyré Nichols U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman Judge Mark NorrisSamuel Hardiman
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise and investigative reporter who focuses on local government and politics. He began his journalism career at the Tulsa World in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he covered business and, later, K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development. He then served as the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s city hall reporter and later joined The Daily Memphian in 2023. His current work focuses on Elon Musk’s xAI, regional energy needs and how Memphis and Shelby County government spend taxpayer dollars.
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