The city of Memphis is seeking cell phone records from Tire Nichols’ family. Lawyer calls it ‘intimidation’

According to legal documents from late September, the city of Memphis is seeking to subpoena phone and social media records from Tire Nichols’ family and friends as the ongoing civil lawsuit over Nichols’ death moves toward trial.

The documents were included as evidence in a September 30 motion for a protective order filed by attorneys representing Nichols’ family, which claims the city wants the documents to dig up “irrelevant dirt with which the city apparently hopes to smear Mr. Nichols.” ‘ character in an effort to minimize damages and compensation to his minor son.”

Attorneys representing RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’ mother, filed the lawsuit about three months after Nichols was beaten by Memphis police officers. The $550 million lawsuit was labeled a “landmark” case that civil rights attorney Ben Crump said was an attempt to “make it financially untenable for these police oppression units to wrongfully kill black people in the future.”

The bulk of the 77-page motion consists of exhibits that include subpoenas for RowVaughn and Rodney Wells’ cell phone provider, T-Mobile, and subpoenas for Marvin, Lori and Kris Volker – friends of Nichols who sheltered him for a time in Sacramento, California, when RowVaughn Wells was in Memphis. They also asked Verizon for documents about Nichols’ work history.

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It also includes an email conversation between a RowVaughn Wells attorney, Sarah Raisch, and Bruce McMullen, one of the attorneys hired by the city of Memphis. In those emails, Raisch objects to the city getting access to the phone records, claiming the city is engaging in a form of harassment in an attempt to obtain it.

“The City’s subpoenas for cell phone records and de Volker’s communications are overly broad, disproportionate to the needs of this case, and are intended to harass, embarrass and intimidate Ms. Wells,” the statement said. motion for a protective order. “The requests are nothing more than a fishing expedition into Mr. Nichols’ personal history – an attempt to dig up irrelevant dirt with which the city apparently hopes to smear Mr. Nichols’ character in an effort to mitigate damages and compensation for his minor son to minimize.”

McMullen disagreed with that sentiment, saying they are a normal part of the discovery process.

“Finally, discovery of phone records is not harassment – ​​it is routine discovery, and the fact that you so vehemently object to the production of something so routine and innocuous speaks volumes,” McMullen wrote in an email.

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Wells’ attorneys also had difficulty obtaining records from the Volker family, claiming that city attorneys indicated to them that Nichols did not have a close relationship with Wells because he had a close relationship with the Volkers.

“With regard to Volker’s subpoenas in particular, the City has suggested that the requested communications are relevant to damages because they demonstrate the nature of Mr. Nichols’ relationship with his own family – particularly his relationship with his mother , his minor son and his son’s. mother,” the motion read. “Specifically, the City pointed to Lori Volker’s statement in the press that Mr. Nichols had referred to her as a second ‘mother.’ The City’s reasoning makes no sense. Having a close relationship with Lori Volker does not mean that Mr. Nichols did not have a close relationship with his own mother, Mrs. Wells.”

According to one of McMullen’s emails, the city has already received some phone records but, at the request of Wells’ attorneys, has agreed not to review them.

Subpoenas from the city requested all communications between the Volkers and Nichols, Nichols’ parents and attorneys between 2019 and 2023, along with all communications between the Volkers and anyone they may have spoken to about Nichols.

A similar subpoena was issued to T-Mobile for RowVaughn and Rodney Wells’ phone records. Lawyers for the Wells family argued that the data is protected by the Stored Communications Act.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis subpoenas family’s cell phone records in Tire Nichols lawsuit