Repeat Offender: Cop Who Texted Pictures Of Tyre Nichols Accused Of Brutally Beating Inmate As A Corrections Officer

Source: Lucy Garrett / Getty
Before Demetrius Haley was a Memphis cop who fatally assaulted Tyre Nichols and took pictures to brag via text, he nearly did the same to a prison inmate.
“I just hope that those officers get what they deserve and set an example for the rest of officers,” says Coradarlius Sledge, who alleged that one of the ex-officers accused in the fatal killing of Tyre Nichols beat him in 2015. https://t.co/Y7TKCqbKs1
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 26, 2023
The AP reports that Haley has a track record of bloodthirsty brutality, with accusations far back as the 2015 assault of Cordarlrius Sledge. At the time, Haley was a corrections officer at Shelby County prison. He and two other officers allegedly attacked Sledge so viciously that the entire cellblock signed a letter complaining to the corrections director.
“We are truly asking that this matter gets looked into before someone gets hurt really bad or lose their life because of some unprofessional officers,” said the letter endorsed by 34 inmates.
The message sounds more like a desperate plea in the face of rampant abuse and misconduct than a rare complaint. The incarcerated asked how they can feel “safe and secure when the staff members at the Shelby County Correctional Center are assaulting and threatening us?” They begged leadership to “Please put a stop to this madness.”
“I Just Hope Those Officers Get What They Deserve”
The Shelby County incident sounds hauntingly similar to the mob violence that caused Nichols’ broken neck and severe internal bleeding. In 2016, Sledge sued Haley and the other guards involved in the assault. The federal lawsuit accused Haley and another of punching Sledge while another slammed his head into the ground.
“When they came in to do one of their little random pop-in searches, they called me and two other guys to the shower area to be strip-searched. They requested for me to be searched first,” Sledge explained to NBC News.
Demetrius Haley 30, who was charged in Tyre Nichols’ death, previously beat up prison inmate: lawsuit. “I could be dead. As it is my body still hurts from the beating. Cordarlrius Sledge told The Post. Haley worked as a correction officer, participated in a prison beatdown.🤬 pic.twitter.com/pWPzisWCe0
— Sumner (@renmusb1) January 29, 2023
Similar to Nichols, the officers used a minor infraction to justify excessive force against an unarmed man. In Sledge’s case, they caught him with contraband. He was attempting to hide a cell phone before he said they beat him.
That’s when they started punching on me. They picked me up and slammed my head into the sink, and I blacked out,” Sledge continued.
After officers took Sledge to the infirmary, he noticed major bleeding from his ear and later complained of hearing loss. Without a lawyer to assist Sledge, a judge dismissed the federal lawsuit because of procedural technicalities.
A Memphis police officer texted photos of a handcuffed #TyreNichols to at least 5 people after brutally beating him.
Demetrius Haley was in an unmarked car when police stopped Nichols, never telling him why or that he was under arrest.
He is 1 of 5 police charged for murder. pic.twitter.com/luaujgKQmf
— AJ+ (@ajplus) February 8, 2023
It’s unclear if the inmates’ letter or Sledge’s complaints resulted in any consequences for Haley. He continued to work as a corrections officer until the Memphis Police Department Hired him in 2020.
“I just hope that those officers get what they deserve and set an example for the rest of officers,” Sladge said when informed Haley was one of the crooked cops responsible for Nichols’ death.
Excessive Force Is The Rule, Not The Exception
In 2021, Kadejah Townes accused Haley of excessive force that dislocated her shoulder. When he and other Memphis cops responded to a report of shots fired, they only saw two women talking and laughing in a car.
Really disturbing incident in the file Demetrius Haley, one of the officers involved in Tyre Nichols’ murder. In 2021, he was one of several officers who responded to reports of shots fired. When cops arrived, they didn’t see anyone shot. But 2 women in a parked car were laughing pic.twitter.com/aiRfscEWnd
— Sam Levine (@srl) February 1, 2023
Haley allegedly didn’t even know why the other officers wanted to stop and arrest both women for laughing while Black. That reportedly didn’t stop him however from helping another cop wrestle Townes into handcuffs and reportedly injure her shoulder.
MEMPHIS: A woman has come forward regarding her own encounter with ex-officer, Demetrius Haley, arrested in the murder of Tyre Nichols. She had tried to warn Memphis Police Department prior to him being killed.
Who knew that laughing while getting a Redbox at a Walgreens was… https://t.co/Bdo1lZDqw8 pic.twitter.com/rTkKYKvUfC
— Witches Truth Post 📜 (@witchestruth) February 11, 2023
Charged with second-degree murder, Haley is yet another example that policing in America is beyond reform. Without a criminal charge or successful lawsuit, dangerous cowards like him can easily stay employed or get hired by another police department. The kind of depravity it takes to share the modern-day equivalent of a lynching postcard runs deep.