MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Details continue to come in surrounding the nine Shelby County corrections deputies charged in the death of Gershun Freeman at the Shelby County Jail in October, 2022, and ABC24 obtained court records Thursday showing a previous civil rights lawsuit against two of them.
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.
According to the lawsuit, the inmate was verbally and physically harassed by Jones when he was booked into jail in July of 2020.
On July 17, 2020, the lawsuit claims Jones refused to feed the inmate, and when he was ordered to feed him after the inmate complained to a supervisor, Jones taunted him, saying he tampered with the food by placing his genitals in it. This caused the inmate to file his first official grievance against Jones.
Two days later, on July 19, 2020, the lawsuit claims Jones refused to give the inmate his daily medications, which prompted another grievance by the inmate, in which he said Jones was giving him constant problems, "telling me he is going to…put his penis in my food."
"I don't know what he is doing to my food or...I don't know what this officer is going to do to me," the inmate said in the complaint. "I'm going by doing this the right way before this officer harm me."
A day after this complaint was filed, on July 20, 2020, The lawsuit said Jones coordinated an assault on the inmate alongside Cooper and two other corrections deputies.
"The assault was nothing short of shocking to the conscience," the lawsuit said.
The inmate was first attacked with pepper spray, then beaten with handcuffs in the head repeatedly, and according to the lawsuit, he required several stiches in the head and broke his ankle.
Jones and Cooper then filed false offense reports, according to the lawsuit, saying the inmate assaulted staff. During disciplinary hearings, it was found the surveillance footage did not back up these claims, and even showed the deputies pre-staging for the assault shortly beforehand.
Jones received a 10-day suspension without pay for the incident.
The lawsuit was filed in 2021, and both sides settled out of court in March, 2023, meaning the lawsuit was still pending at the time of Gershun Freeman's death in October 2022.
Jones and Cooper, along with seven other corrections deputies, were booked into jail Wednesday on charges relating to Freeman's death, and will be in court again on Oct. 27.