Desmond Mills Jr., one of five former Memphis police officers charged in the January beating death of Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop, pleaded guilty to two of four criminal charges in the nationally watched federal civil rights case, and several charges in a state case.
Mills (pictured above) appeared Thursday morning before Judge Mark Norris in the Western District of Tennessee.
In accepting the plea deal, Mills will not be charged with two of the four counts against him.
Mills, who is 33, faced charges of using excessive force, deliberate indifference, conspiracy to witness tamper, and obstruction of justice in early September. He ultimately pleaded guilty to the excessive force and conspiracy charge in federal court. In state court, he pleaded guilty to the slew of charges related to Nichols’ death.
He agreed he is pleading guilty “knowingly and voluntarily because he is in fact guilty of the offenses charged in counts One and Three of the indictment,” court filings state.
In exchange, federal and local prosecutors will recommend a prison sentence of no more than 15 years to be served concurrently in federal prison. He could have faced life in prison.
But prosecutors want full cooperation and “substantial assistance” from Mills, spelling trouble for his four co-defendants.
In September, a federal grand jury in Memphis returned a four-count indictment against Mills and his co-defendants — Emmitt Martin III, 31; Tadarrius Bean, 24; Demetrius Haley, 30; and Justin Smith, 28. The former detectives with the controversial SCORPION (“Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods) unit were indicted on federal civil rights, conspiracy, and obstruction charges in the January death of Nichols, a 27-year-old black man.
The former officers, fired shortly after Nichols’ death, also are black. They all pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
Mills and the others also face several charges in Shelby County, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, and aggravated kidnapping following the brutal beating death. Nichols died days after the traffic stop in which the members of the SCORPION team claimed that Nichols was driving recklessly. Investigators have said there was no evidence to back up those charges.
Video images of the officers repeatedly hitting, kicking, and stomping Nichols as he cried out for his mother shocked the nation.
The fired officers each pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Mills’ defense attorney, Blake Ballin, did not immediately respond to The Tennessee Star’s request for comment.
Norris, the federal judge in the criminal case, also is presiding over a federal civil rights case filed by nationally renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump on behalf of Nichols’ family. All five of the former police officers are named as defendants in that civil case, as well as the City of Memphis, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis, two other former officers, and three Memphis Fire Department members.
Crump and fellow attorney Antonio Romanucci, who represent Nichols’ family, said in a statement that the plea “is entirely consistent with our allegations in the civil lawsuit against the City of Memphis.”
“We stand strong in our belief that these officers, including Mills, acted at the direction of a policy that not only violated the civil rights of innocent civilians but which caused needless pain to many,” the attorneys said.
They added:
The MPD and its SCORPION unit directed, trained and encouraged officers like Mills to commit baseless and horrific acts of violence against innocent individuals like Tyre Nichols. We vigorously restate our assertion that those policies were behind what ultimately caused Mills and four other Scorpion officers to kill Tyre Nichols.
Mills was not an individual actor, and as our civil suit continues to unfold that will become even more apparent.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
