The Tyre Nichols $550 million civil lawsuit, filed in April 2023 by his mother RowVaughn Wells in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, has narrowed sharply as it moves toward trial. The five former Memphis officers who beat Nichols were voluntarily dismissed from the case in April 2026, and Wells was in the process of removing Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis as well, leaving the City of Memphis as the central remaining defendant. A trial date of July 13, 2026 was set, though later filings reference a November 9, 2026 date after the case was reassigned to a new judge.
Who Is Still Being Sued
The original complaint named more than a dozen defendants: the City of Memphis, Chief Davis, the five fired officers (Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III, and Justin Smith), a sixth officer named Preston Hemphill, former police lieutenant DeWayne Smith, and three emergency medical personnel.1ABC News. Tyre Nichols Family Files Civil Lawsuit Against City of Memphis
In March 2026, Wells moved to dismiss all claims against the five officers who carried out the beating. The dismissals were confirmed in April 2026 and entered with prejudice, meaning the claims against those officers cannot be refiled.2Action News 5. Ex-MPD Officers Dismissed From Tyre Nichols Civil Lawsuit Wells explained that continuing to litigate against the individual officers could “likely drag on for years” and jeopardize the trial date.3WREG. Five Former Officers in Tyre Nichols Case Removed From Civil Lawsuit
Wells was also removing Chief Davis from the lawsuit as of April 2026.3WREG. Five Former Officers in Tyre Nichols Case Removed From Civil Lawsuit The effect is a case aimed squarely at institutional liability: the City of Memphis and the policing culture the complaint blames for Nichols’ death.
What the Lawsuit Alleges
The 25-count complaint alleged excessive force, deliberate indifference to serious medical needs, unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment, wrongful death, negligence, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and fraudulent misrepresentation for allegedly lying to Wells about her son’s condition.1ABC News. Tyre Nichols Family Files Civil Lawsuit Against City of Memphis At the core, the suit argued the beating was “the direct and foreseeable product of the unconstitutional policies, practices, customs, and deliberate indifference of the City of Memphis” and that the SCORPION street-crime unit operated as an “unqualified, untrained, and unsupervised” force.4CNN. Tyre Nichols Death Lawsuit Against Memphis Police
A federal judge granted the plaintiff’s motion to amend the complaint on January 3, 2025, after the federal criminal trial concluded. The amended version broadened the case considerably. It alleged a “longstanding custom of brutalizing civilians” within the Memphis Police Department reaching back to at least 2015, well before Davis’s tenure or the creation of SCORPION. It cited 21 instances of alleged excessive force involving 24 people, up from seven instances in the original, and described what it called a “run tax,” a pattern of officers using punitive force against people who fled or showed disrespect. The amendment also incorporated findings that mirrored a Department of Justice pattern-or-practice report on the department, and it sued Chief Davis in both her official and individual capacities, alleging she gave “direct orders to violate civil rights.”5Commercial Appeal. What Are the Key Changes in the Amended Tyre Nichols Lawsuit
Where the $550 Million Figure Comes From
The number was not calculated from economic damages. Attorney Ben Crump said the figure referenced the 55 years since Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, and that the goal was to “send a message to Memphis and other U.S. cities that continued brutalization of Black men will be wrenchingly expensive.”6Reuters. Family of Tyre Nichols Files Federal Lawsuit Against Memphis
For scale, the largest comparable police brutality settlement in recent years was the $27 million the City of Minneapolis paid to George Floyd’s family. Louisville paid $12 million to Breonna Taylor’s family in 2020.7PBS. Attorneys to Announce Settlement in Breonna Taylor Case
Why the Officers Were Dropped
The criminal outcomes shaped the civil calculus. Mills and Martin pleaded guilty to federal charges including excessive force, failing to intervene, and conspiring to cover up unlawful force.8ABC News. Tyre Nichols Case Federal Trial Verdict On October 3, 2024, a federal jury convicted Haley of depriving Nichols of his constitutional rights through unreasonable force and deliberate indifference to his medical needs, failing to intervene, and conspiracy to witness-tamper. Bean and Smith were acquitted of the more serious civil rights counts but convicted of witness tampering.9U.S. Department of Justice. Three Former Memphis Police Officers Convicted of Federal Felonies Related to Death of Tyre Nichols
On May 7, 2025, a state jury found Bean, Haley, and Smith not guilty on every state count, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct, and official oppression.10WREG. Jury Deliberations Continue in Trial for Ex-Officers in Tyre Nichols Death Defense attorneys pointed to those outcomes when the civil dismissals came through. Justin Smith’s attorney noted that two juries had unanimously found Smith neither harmed Nichols nor violated his civil rights. Tadarrius Bean’s attorney cited his acquittal on all state charges and all federal civil rights and excessive force counts.2Action News 5. Ex-MPD Officers Dismissed From Tyre Nichols Civil Lawsuit
The federal convictions themselves are no longer standing. On August 28, 2025, Chief U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman vacated the convictions of Bean, Haley, and Smith and ordered new federal trials after allegations that the original trial judge, Mark Norris, had made prejudicial comments about the Memphis Police Department. Lipman ruled that “the risk of bias here is too high to be constitutionally tolerable.”11WREG. Judge Grants New Federal Trial for Officers in Tyre Nichols Case Because Bean and Smith were acquitted of the civil rights counts, they cannot be retried on those charges. No dates for the new federal trials have been set, and none of the five officers has been sentenced.12NBC News. 3 Officers Ordered New Trials in Death of Tyre Nichols
Trial Date, New Judge, and Settlement Status
The civil trial has been rescheduled repeatedly. Judge Norris originally pushed the date citing the pending state criminal trial, the amended complaint, and the need for a new mediator.13Commercial Appeal. Tyre Nichols Civil Trial July 2026 The trial was set for July 13, 2026, with attorneys estimating roughly six weeks of proceedings.14Tennessee Bar Association. Tyre Nichols Civil Trial Scheduled Later filings reference a November 9, 2026 trial date, suggesting further rescheduling after the case was reassigned.3WREG. Five Former Officers in Tyre Nichols Case Removed From Civil Lawsuit
Judge Norris recused himself from the civil lawsuit; an order filed on June 26, 2025 transferred the case to Judge Lipman.15Tennessee Bar Association. Judge Norris Recusal From Tyre Nichols Civil Case
Settlement talks have been ongoing since December 2023 without resolution. The original mediator, retired federal Judge Bernice Donald, withdrew after being appointed as an independent monitor to oversee police reform at the Memphis Police Department pursuant to Department of Justice recommendations. A new mediator has yet to be selected.13Commercial Appeal. Tyre Nichols Civil Trial July 2026
The Nichols family is represented by Ben Crump along with Antonio Romanucci and others from Romanucci & Blandin.16Ben Crump Law. Civil Lawsuit for Police Beating Death of Tyre Nichols The legal team said in May 2025 that “our quest for accountability is not intended to be punitive to the broader Memphis community and is designed to derive accountability specifically from those individuals and municipal entities who are responsible.”17Romanucci & Blandin. Ben Crump Antonio Romanucci Tyre Nichols Civil Litigation Statement
The City’s Defense Strategy
The City of Memphis has pushed back on several fronts. It opposed the amended complaint, calling it full of “scandalous details” designed to make the lawsuit “more bombastic” and arguing it would force the defense to “start from square one.”5Commercial Appeal. What Are the Key Changes in the Amended Tyre Nichols Lawsuit
The city has also pursued Nichols’ personal history to challenge damages. In a November 2024 filing, it alleged that attorneys for the family offered $400,000 to Morgan Jackson, the mother of Nichols’ son, in exchange for relinquishing the right to oversee his estate. Family attorneys disputed this, attributing any financial exchanges to GoFundMe campaigns. The city deposed individuals from Nichols’ time in California, and its filings referenced a 2017 arrest in Yolo County, California, where Nichols was charged with felony infliction of corporal injury and misdemeanor child endangerment; he pleaded no contest to the corporal injury charge, which was reduced to a misdemeanor, and served three years of probation.18Commercial Appeal. City of Memphis Targeting Tyre Nichols California History in Filing
Attorneys for Wells called the city’s approach a “smear campaign” and “guerrilla warfare” intended to distract from the officers’ and the city’s liability.18Commercial Appeal. City of Memphis Targeting Tyre Nichols California History in Filing