MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Nine former Shelby County jailers accused of beating Gershun Freeman to death inside the Shelby County Jail were back in court Friday, with prosecutors showing more documents accusing two of the jailers of assault in an unrelated incident, just days before Freeman died.
A civil rights violation complaint form was released in court Friday, naming former jailers Lareko Elliott and Charles Gatewood among others in two different assault allegations against an inmate.
The inmate said Elliott and Gatewood were part of a group that assaulted him away from security cameras after another run in with jailers on Sept. 27, 2022. The inmate said he was attacked in 201 Poplar's medical facility by a group that included Elliott and Gatewood, then taken to a nearby closet and assaulted again, leaving him with a swollen right eye, a deep cut on his ear, and hearing loss. The inmate also said he was kicked in the face and back several times.
The next day, Sept. 28, the inmate said this same group of jailers attacked him again during a move to a new cell, leaving him with what he said were multiple blows to the head over a period of 30 minutes.
Elliott and Gatewood are each charged with aggravated assault in the death of Gershun Freeman, who was killed inside 201 Poplar on Oct. 5, 2022.
A video of the altercation inside the jail showing Freeman being beaten and restrained by multiple correctional officers was released March 2.
The last minutes of the video show Gershun being restrained naked by multiple officers while handcuffed, lying face down on the jail floor. One officer is seen kneeling on his back for about four minutes until his body goes limp.
Elliott and Gatewood are not the only officers charged in Freeman's death to be named in other civil rights complaints inside the jail.
According to federal court records, Stevon Jones, charged with murder and aggravated assault in Freeman's death, and Damian Cooper, charged with aggravated assault causing the death of another, were named as defendants in a 2021 civil rights lawsuit filed by an inmate in the Shelby County Jail.
That lawsuit claims Jones and Cooper, alongside two other Shelby County corrections deputies in 201 Poplar, violated the inmate's First Amendment right to file a prison grievance when they assaulted him in retaliation for filing the complaint.
Elliott turned himself in alongside seven of the nine jailers charged in Freeman's death on Sept. 20, 2023, while Gatewood turned himself in five days later.