MEMPHIS, Tenn — Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy addressed the media Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023, to address Shelby County Sheriff’s Floyd Bonner’s accusations that the indictment of correctional officers in the death of Gershun Freeman was politically motivated.
Mulroy first said when any public official makes claims of political motivation, he feels a need to address it.
Mulroy then reiterated what he said in a statement Wednesday following news of the indictments, which said:
“I endorsed Van Turner for Mayor before Mr. Freeman died in the Shelby County Jail and before Sheriff Bonner declared his candidacy. To keep politics out of the case, I recused myself and requested another DA be appointed, a common practice among DAs which is not at all unusual. The DA Conference, not me, appointed Glenn Funk. I've had no involvement at all in the case since last year, and played no role in the decision to indict.
The release of the video was per the regular practice of DA Funk and not at all unusual. I haven't stated I disagree with it. Sheriff Bonner was legally able to release any and all of the videos in all jail death and officer-involved shooting cases. I favor such release in the name of transparency.
In recent jail death cases since the Freeman case, Sheriff Bonner initially refused to provide TBI or this office with videos, stating that we could view the video at his office but could not have a copy and that we had to go through his lawyer Allan Wade. This is not practical; we need a copy of the video to examine ourselves. As a result, I had to get the TBI to compel production of the videos.
I can't comment on the details of the Freeman case, both because it is an ongoing case and because I am not involved in it since it is DA Funk's case and not ours. “
Mulroy said Thursday that DA Funk used the same Shelby County Grand Jury process to indict the jailers as was used in the Tyre Nichols case. He reiterated both the jailers in the Freeman case and the MPD officers in the Nichols case are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
“I believe that we should presume that the grand jurors who indicted the sheriff’s deputies, just like the grand jurors who indicted the officers involved in the Tyre Nichols case, acted in good faith,” said Mulroy. “And similarly, I think we should presume that both DAs involved acted in good faith, absence actual evidence to the contrary. For a public official to say otherwise, in absence of any evidence, is in my view regrettable.”
When asked about Bonner’s claims that the release of the Freeman video was against the law, Mulroy said there’s a specific statute that gives DA’s discretion in fatal officer-involved shooting cases. He said in other similar cases, there’s a law that the TBI investigative file shall not be released.
Mulroy said the question is if any third-party document or video that comes into the possession of the TBI, is that part of the TBI file under that statute? He said there are some who believe it does, and others who believe it doesn’t, but he does not believe it’s clear that the video release is against the law, and he said he never said otherwise to Bonner or anyone else. Mulroy said that there’s a lot of discretion used in these cases.
Mulroy said what DA Funk did is consistent with his regular practice in Nashville.
Mulroy also reiterated he does not have a lot of information on the Freeman case because he recused himself. He said the whole point in the recusal was it did not appear political, which is why, “I’m surprised, and somewhat frustrated people are saying otherwise… I did everything I could to take politics out of it. And I hope that the public doesn’t buy the narrative that there was anything untoward about it.”
This all comes after the Sheriff Bonner hosted a news conference Wednesday, Sept. 20, on Freeman's death in the Shelby County Jail on October 5, 2022, and confirmed indictments were announced against nine correctional officers. Bonner did not name the deputies involved in the case but did say he will offer legal fees for those deputies to fight the case.
Bonner claimed the "early" release of "edited" video of the deadly altercation was a political move meant to derail his campaign for Memphis Mayor.
A video of the altercation inside the jail showing Freeman being beaten and restrained by multiple correctional officers was released March 2, 2023. The last minutes of the video show Freeman, while naked and handcuffed, being restrained by multiple officers, lying face down on the jail floor. One officer is seen kneeling on his back for about four minutes until his body goes limp.
After the video release, a statement from Bonner claimed Freeman died of a heart attack while being restrained and said parts of the video were being shown out of context.
Freeman’s manner of death is listed as a homicide in the autopsy report from the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center, although the report said this “is not meant to definitively indicate criminal intent.”
In a statement following Mulroy's news conference Thursday, Bonner's campaign released the following statement: "Anyone who has seen the video or followed this case knows that the jailers took necessary steps to restrain an inmate that was violent and dangerous and posed a threat to themselves and other inmates. As noted by the coroner, it is unfortunate that he had serous underlying heart disease and it’s unfortunate he died of a heart attack. I stand by these officers and am honestly ashamed of my opponents who are looking to capitalize off of an unfortunate and tragic death. The indictment is clearly an orchestrated political stunt just two weeks before Election Day and the people of Memphis can see through this blatant disregard for justice and the gross attack on public safety officers.”
In April, Freeman's family filed a lawsuit against Sheriff Bonner, Chief Jailer Kirk Fields, and the government of Shelby County for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C & 1983 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Brice Timmons and Jake Brown, attorneys for Freeman's family, commented Wednesday immediately after Bonner's press conference, alleging the Sheriff was in violation of state law by commenting on the indictments before they were officially un-sealed, which they said will happen Monday.
The family attorneys also claimed the deputies named in the indictments - whose names they did not release - are still employed at the Shelby County Jail.
Thursday morning, Tennessee House Minority leader Rep. Karen Camper released a statement saying, "At a time when the public trust in our law enforcement institutions is rapidly eroding, Sheriff Bonner's press conference demonstrated an alarming tone deafness. Our city and communities need and deserve transparency. Whether it is providing traffic stop footage in public to ensure that citizens civil rights were protected or video inside the Shelby County Jail to ensure that inmates' civil rights are not violated; we must come clean with the public about whether or not there was wrongdoing. Since 2019, 40 inmates have died while in custody at the Shelby County Jail, I believe Sheriff Bonner owes it to those families and our community to provide answers and transparency instead of hiding the truth."
