A Memphis man has taken his fight to federal court after a disturbing photograph of his deceased mother surfaced on her own iPhone days after she was found dead. Relatives say the image, which they describe as showing the 69-year-old partially unclothed with medical electrode pads on her back, has only deepened their grief and fueled demands for the release of body-worn camera footage and other evidence.
According to a complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, the family is asking a judge to declare the city’s actions unconstitutional, award damages for emotional distress and order the release of all related evidence, including body-worn camera recordings, as reported by Action News 5.
Wilson says he found the image two days after his mother, LaJuanese Trannon, was discovered dead inside her Orange Mound home. He says the medical examiner later ruled her cause of death a pulmonary embolism. “There is absolutely no way that you mistakenly thought this was your phone,” Wilson said. Phone records and the photo’s metadata place officers at the house around 12:30 p.m., show a call to Wilson at 1:01 p.m., and a timestamp on the photo near 1:04 p.m., according to 13ABC.
Department response and internal review
The Memphis Police Department has said the photo was taken accidentally while a lieutenant tried to unlock the phone and that the image was deleted. Internal Affairs later investigated the incident and cleared the officer, Action News 5 reports. The department also provided a written conclusion to the family, a finding the lawsuit claims does not line up with portions of the video Wilson was allowed to see.
Family says video tells a different story
Wilson’s supporters say he was called to police headquarters on December 10, 2025, and shown only two short body-camera clips totaling about 10 seconds. Those snippets, they say, depict a lieutenant using Trannon’s phone to photograph her body and then trying to delete the image. The advocacy group You Are The Power, which has been pressing the city for more transparency, says more than three hours of footage exist and argues that limiting Wilson to a few seconds hid crucial context.
What the complaint asks and the stakes
The federal complaint asks the court to order the release of the full body-camera recordings and all other evidence, to rule that the officers’ conduct was unconstitutional, and to award damages for emotional distress. Local coverage notes that the family was repeatedly told officers were not responsible until after those brief clips were shown, and the complaint contends that the excerpts leave out important context, according to 13ABC…