Jerry Lawler’s Lawsuit Over Brian Christopher’s Death Dismissed

Jerry Lawler’s wrongful death lawsuit against Hardeman County, Tennessee over his son Brian’s passing has been dismissed. As previously reported, Lawler brought a lawsuit against the county back in 2019 after Brian, who performed in WWE as Brian Christopher and Grandmaster Sexay, died while incarcerated for a DUI arrest in July of 2018. The lawsuit had been delayed many times and had a March 31st, 2025 date set for a jury trial, but PWInsider reports that the suit was dismissed on September 4th by The U.S. District Court, Western District of Tennessee (Jackson).

The report notes that the court’s decision noted:

“Plaintiff had failed to present evidence from which a jury could find that the individual officers knew that the Decedent possessed a ‘strong likelihood’ of suicide, and disregarded that knowledge; therefore, Plaintiff could not show that the individual defendants were subjectively aware of such a risk.”

It is also noted that the original court ruling allowing some parts of the lawsuit was based on a 2021 precedent. However, with Brian Lawler having passed in 2018, it was ruled that an earlier precedent should have applied and the earlier precedent was in favor of the defendants. As such, the determination was made to dismiss the entirety of the suit.