TRIAL DATE SET FOR DECEMBER 16
by Sharon Rondeau
(Feb. 1, 2019) — On Wednesday, Memphis resident and “Memphis Truth Commission” blogger Fergus Nolan attended a scheduling hearing in a case filed by two local women claiming civil-rights violations on the part of Shelby County, the City of Memphis, and three assistant prosecutors after they were falsely arrested in 2017.
The hearing took place at 10:00 a.m. on January 30 at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Western Divisional Office, and resulted in a schedule leading to a possible jury trial on December 16 of this year.
The lawsuit, in which Watson and Malone are representing themselves due to the lack of a willing attorney, was filed last March 23. Nolan reported Wednesday that the case will first go through a mediation process.
After their respective arrests in January 2017, Celitria Watson and April Malone were able to prove they were falsely accused of taking part in a conspiracy to funnel drugs into a penal facility. Unbeknownst to them at the time, their texts and emails with Kendrick Watson, then in the Shelby County jail, were collected and altered by unknown parties who have not been prosecuted criminally.
The alteration of the texts made it appear at first glance that Malone and Watson were communicating with Kendrick Watson, Celitria’s brother, about the dates, timing and coordination of drug shipments when in fact, their texts were innocuous in nature.
Unbeknownst to local law enforcement, Celitria Watson was utilizing a Google app which captured all of her phone’s text communications, saving them to her email account. After producing the original texts and emails to their attorneys, Watson and Malone were quietly removed from the list of 16 defendants in the case.
Kendrick Watson is now serving a 23-year prison term as a result of two criminal cases but claims that he, too, was a victim of “fake evidence.”
Late last year, Nolan interviewed Celitria and April about their ordeal, the video from which he posted to his YouTube channel.
Over the last two years, The Post & Email has published numerous articles in which Memphis residents have reported malfeasance on the part of the District Attorney General’s office, local police, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, and 30th Judicial District judges.