The Shelby County District Attorney's Office got some new leadership this week, with DA Steve Mulroy appointing two people to his executive staff.
And a federal judge seemed poised to rule against the Memphis Safe Task Force in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.
Here's what else was on the docket for the week of Sept. 21, 2026.
Federal judge signals ruling against Memphis Safe Task Force
A federal judge seems poised to restrict how members of the Memphis Safe Task Force use a Tennessee law to keep onlookers at a distance, but it is not clear what those restrictions could be.
U.S. District Court Judge Mark S. Norris for the Western District of Tennessee, during a Sept. 23 hearing, repeatedly said he would not want his comments to be construed as indicative of how he would rule.
But he frequently followed those remarks by questioning how he would create a narrowly tailored preliminary injunction.
"There are a number of troublesome incidents that have surfaced here," Norris said of allegations that President Donald Trump's Task Force was retaliating against community activists who routinely filmed Task Force activities. Norris also asked if the two opposing sides of the lawsuit could discuss how a preliminary injunction could work.
Norris was appointed to the federal bench by Trump in 2018, during the president's first term.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit in May, accusing the Task Force of violating activists' First Amendment rights to film and gather information about law enforcement activities through the use of Tennessee's Halo Law.
The Halo Law requires onlookers to be at least 25 feet away from law enforcement when an officer invokes it.
Mulroy appoints new deputy prosecutors
The Shelby County District Attorney's Office has appointed two new executive deputy DAs, backfilling two vacancies that recently popped up.
Lessie Rainey, appointed as deputy DA, will be Mulroy's second-in-command, and Monica Timmerman, appointed as associate deputy DA, will be his third.
Rainey has been with the DA's office since 2009. She earned her undergraduate degree from Washington and Lee University before earning her law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law, the DA's office said.
Timmerman earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Memphis and earned her law degree from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. She has practiced criminal law since 2013 and has been with the DA's office since 2022.
Timmerman was briefly suspended at the start of her prosecutorial career after being charged with driving under the influence. She pleaded guilty and was reinstated after finishing a treatment program for addiction.
The duo replaces Paul Hagerman and Chris Lareau, respectively. Hagerman, last week, was appointed as one of Shelby County's new criminal court judges. Lareau, according to the DA's office in a press release, left the office at an unspecified time "to pursue other endeavors."
Top Commercial Appeal courts, public safety stories readers have viewed
- From Sept. 21, 2026: Trump's Task Force demands transparency from others, shirks it internally
- From Sept. 17, 2026: Memphis Safe Task Force, local officials distance themselves from ICE
- From Sept. 23, 2026: Federal judge may rule against Memphis Safe Task Force use of TN Halo Law
- From Sept. 17, 2026: Elon Musk's Memphis data centers sued for $30 million for worker death
- From Sept. 16, 2026: Memphis Safe Task Force approaches 1 year. What has happened in court?
Latest in Memphis' biggest cases
The Tyré Nichols civil case may have hit yet another roadblock. On Aug. 31, attorneys for the now-former defendants Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith Jr. filed a motion requesting U.S. District Court Chief Judge Sheryl Lipman for the Western District of Tennessee allow them to answer deposition questions in writing.
Bean, Haley and Smith are still facing the potential of another criminal trial. Because of that, they were dismissed from the civil case in a bid by lawyers representing RowVaughn Wells, Nichols' mother, to speed the civil case to trial.
But a long deposition, attorneys for the former Memphis police officers claim, would be "contentious as best and result in further motions before this court if the court does not step in now" and lay out the best way to proceed.
"Plaintiff clearly wants or understands that Smith, Haley and Bean will take the Fifth Amendment, and will then later at a trial of the cause seek an adverse inference," Smith's attorney, Martin Zummach, wrote in the motion. "The federal and state criminal investigation materials have all been provided to plaintiff's counsel, and there is little, if anything, that could be accomplished by a discovery deposition in the civil case other than an attempt to have a negative inference against the remaining civil defendants."
Attorneys representing the City of Memphis signed on to that motion, saying there would be no impact to Wells' case if they were to respond to written questions. The city's attorneys also alleged Wells' attorneys have a "documented history of harassing and abusive conduct" during depositions.
"The court should not have to play referee to contentious, multi-hour depositions that are unlikely to yield meaningful testimony when a written-question procedure can identify the limited topics, if any, that warrant live examination," Bruce McMullen, one of the city's attorneys, said in their motion.
Wells' attorneys, however, opposed both the former officers' and city's motions. In their response, Wells' attorneys said an in-person deposition would allow them to get responses from the officers themselves, develop impeachment evidence if testimony changes, and said they plan to show footage of Nichols' beating during a deposition.
"That conventional deposition method works: it permits real-time questions, answers, and cross-questions; it makes showing a witness exhibits and asking about them straightforward; and the video lets jurors see and hear the witness' answers and observe their demeanor, rather than read answers that were drafted by the witness' lawyer," Wells' attorneys wrote.
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Lucas Finton covers crime, policing, jails, the courts and criminal justice policy for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by phone or email: (901)208-3922 and Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com, and followed on X @LucasFinton.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: New leadership in Shelby County DA's Office; Nichols suit hits roadblock
