Shelby County judge orders release of additional Tyre Nichols records

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge James Jones Jr ordered the release of a trove of additional records in the Tyre Nichols state criminal case.

The records were initially slated to be released by the City of Memphis in early March, but a last-minute court filing from Blake Ballin, the attorney representing Desmond Mills Jr, halted that release. Jones agreed to block the release of the records until the defense attorneys had reviewed them.

"This court has determined that a delay in the public production of such information would not only advance the defendants' right to a fair trial, but also help ensure a fair trial for all parties involved in this case," Jones wrote in the order. "In balancing the interest of protecting the constitutional rights of the parties and the public interest in having access to information, the court now finds that the parties have had ample time to review all the records and is appropriate to rescind the previous two orders delaying the release of information in the possession of the city and county governments."

The records have been the subject of litigation from a coalition of news media outlets, including The Commercial Appeal, that asked for the records to be released quickly. Jones, in a previous court date, initially said he would have a ruling by Aug. 18.

According to the City of Memphis and the Shelby County District Attorney's Office, the records include more than 20 hours of additional audio and video footage from the night Nichols was beaten by now-former officers with the Memphis Police Department. It also includes personnel files and Garrity statements — which are statements made during internal investigations — among "2,000 or 3,000 pages of documents," Shelby County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagerman said in May.

It is unclear from the court order when the records will be made public, and Erica Williams, the director of communications for the Shelby County District Attorney's Office, said the records were turned back over to the City of Memphis. The city did not respond at the time of publication to a question about the timeline for the release of the records.

The Garrity statements, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said at the time, are not likely to be among the publicly released documents. Documents that reference those Garrity statements are also likely to be redacted, Mulroy said. Those documents, per Jones' latest order, will not be included in the released records.

The records had to be organized into an index to be reviewed by defense attorneys in the case prior to their release, and the DA's office completed that in early June.

All five defense attorneys — each representing a different officer in the case — argued which records should be publicly available, and which should not in a May hearing. Ballin argued that the records produced from the city's internal investigation should not be made publicly available, saying they fall into discovery, even if they have not been called discovery specifically.

"The information the MPD has given, it is discovery," Ballin said in court in May. "You can put lipstick on it, but it's still discovery."

Mills, the former officer Ballin is representing, entered a plea deal for both his state and federal cases Thursday, so it is unclear if that position has changed.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Tennessee judge orders release of more records in Tyre Nichols case