MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The City of Memphis has filed a motion in court attempting to stop the civil suit filed by Tyre Nichols' mother and estate.
The motion to dismiss was filed on Friday by city government stating that they believe Nichols' death "was the result of five rogue police officers." They state in the motion that they believe that the City of Memphis, as a whole, did not have a hand in Nichols' death.
"Nichols' life was cut short by the actions of these rogue officers, and the City in no way condones, ratifies or approves of those actions," the introduction of the motion reads. "The primary question that this suit presents, however, is whether the City should be civilly liable for Mr. Nichols’s death under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Although this situation is tragic, the answer is no."
City government suggests in their motion that the court should dismiss the claims against them and "turn its full attention to those individuals entirely responsible for the death of Mr. Nichols."
Then listed by the city are the five former Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers who are charged with second-degree murder in connection with Nichols' death — Emmitt Martin III, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Desmond Mills Jr. and Tadarrius Bean.
The $550 million lawsuit filed by Nichols' mother — RowVaughn Wells — blames officers for his death and accuses police chief Cerelyn "CJ" Davis of "turning a blind eye" to MPD's SCORPION unit's "aggressive style of policing" even before Nichols' assault.
In their motion, city government challenges this by claiming that Wells does not allege "when or how the City was on notice" for incidents such as unconstitutional pretextual traffic stops taking place prior to Jan. 7.
The city also said, in their motion, that they believe claims against chief Davis and Lieutenant Smith should be dropped.
"Because the City is also named as a defendant in this lawsuit, the 'official capacity' claim against Chief Davis and the claim against Lt. Smith 'as an agent of the City' are redundant and should be dismissed," the motion reads.
Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci filed the lawsuit against the City of Memphis back in April, including 25 counts of civil rights abuse from the series of events that led to Nichols' death as well as policies and practices within MPD they said they believe contributed to his death.
“We’re going to peel back every single onion layer that we can to expose the indifference that has been existing in the Memphis Police Department not for days; not for weeks, but for months,” said Romanucci when the lawsuit was first filed.