TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Nov 21, 2024

Attorneys for the city of Memphis filed court documents this month raising questions that could affect a $550 million civil rights suit being brought by RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Tyre Nichols. Among its claims, the city says that Morgan Jackson, the mother of Nichols’ son, received $400,000 from attorneys for Wells in exchange for relinquishing her right to administer Nichols' estate. The documents also include a claim allegedly made by Jackson during depositions that Nichols was physically abusive of her. Lawyers for Wells are pushing back on the disclosures, saying they are being made to smear the family and “poison the jury pool.” They dispute the source of the payments to Jackson, saying they came from private citizens via a GoFundMe account, and say that the filing violates a previous order that gave attorneys time to designate portions of depositions as confidential. The Daily Memphian has more on the story.