The top federal prosecutor in Memphis, U.S. attorney for Western Tennessee Kevin Ritz, says the Department of Justice inquiry affects the relationship his office has with the law enforcement body.

A federal civil rights lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the parents of Deion Byrd, a Shelby County Jail inmate who was assaulted while awaiting a court appearance at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center.

Four people, two suspects and two civilians, were noncritically injured Friday, Jan. 26, after officers shot at alleged car thieves before the suspects fled and crashed into a civilian’s car.

The Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct has recommended Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Melissa Boyd be removed from office, according to a letter sent to Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally. 

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton said the amendment would increase judicial discretion regarding bail and would require judges to say why or why not they granted bail. 

The affidavit says the inmate told the jailer that he “had something for him,” and “I’m going to kill you.”

Gerald Skahan allegedly sent three text messages where he threatened “bodily harm” or to kill Paula Skahan, according to the complaint.

An attorney for one of the former officers previously argued that federal prosecutors in the criminal case should not be allowed to have expert witnesses speak on two key points during the trial.

“To say that that first year was a challenging one would be an understatement,” Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy said.

At least 15 city employees traveled to the Caribbean island for a recruiting fair last July. The event, designed to attract police officers and employees for other hard-to-fill jobs, failed to attract a single candidate.

Some of the 120 prosecutors working in the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office make as much as $70,000 more than their colleagues who work next to them.

Demetrius Haley asked Thursday, Jan. 18, for the trial to be moved outside of the city due to excessive media coverage of the case, according to court documents filed electronically. 

Memphis saw a 50% decrease in crime between Sunday, Jan. 14, and Tuesday, Jan. 16, from the same point in the week. Criminal incidents were down 62% from the same three-day period in 2023.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation officials are investigating the death of an inmate at 201 Poplar.

Just under 5% of Shelby County residents speak a language at home that isn’t English or Spanish, according to 2022 Census data. Finding court interpreters for those residents can be difficult when they’re needed.

Anthony “Big Jook” Mims, 47, was shot in Southeast Memphis, along with another man who has not yet been identified.

A reporter’s roundtable on the WKNO-TV program “Behind The Headlines” included a discussion of the rough reception MPD Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis got at the year’s first city council session.

Out of the Memphis Police Department’s current complement of 1,912 officers, roughly a quarter of them – 24.9% – were hired in 2022 or 2023. 

In 2023, the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department said they encountered about 55 human trafficking victims. The north Mississippi county often leads the state in human trafficking arrests. 

The guide was written as part of a review from the U.S. DOJ Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office, which was requested by the City of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department.

If Memphis has healed – or if it has at least scarred in the wake of Tyre Nichols’ death – it is because of RowVaughn Wells, said J. Lawrence Turner, pastor of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church.

There was a time when violence against suspects was talked about freely within the force, according to former and current MPD officers. Relatively recent evidence suggests that kind of culture may have continued within the department.

Related story:

What’s going on with MPD’s traffic stops? Depends on whom you ask.

Whether Memphis City Council’s ban on pretextual traffic stops is being followed, and what will happen in the future, remains unclear.