Crime
A fourth former deputy is sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in the torture and sexual assault of black men
ACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A fourth former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy was sentenced Wednesday for his role in racist torture of two black men by a bunch of white officers who called themselves the “Goon Squad”, sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.
Christian Dedmon, 29, didn’t take a look at the victims as he apologized and said he would never forgive himself for the pain he had caused.
All six former officers charged in the case pleaded guilty last 12 months, admitting that they subjected Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to quite a few acts of racist torture in January 2023 after a neighbor complained that the men were in the house with white woman. Prosecutors said Dedmon hit the men with a sex toy and threatened to brutalize them.
U.S. District Judge Tom Lee said Wednesday that Dedmon carried out the most “shocking, brutal and vicious attacks imaginable” on Jenkins and Parker and on a white man during a traffic stop weeks earlier.
Jenkins, who still has difficulty speaking due to his injuries, said in an announcement read by his lawyer that Dedmon’s behavior was the most depraved of those that attacked him.
“Deputy Dedmon is the worst example of a police officer in the United States,” Jenkins said. “Deputy Dedmon was the most aggressive, the sickest and the most vile.”
Hours before Dedmon was sentenced, former officer Daniel Opdyke, 28, cried profusely as he spoke before the judge announced his 17.5-year prison sentence. Turning to take a look at the two victims, Opdyke said the isolation behind bars gave him time to reflect on “how I turned into the monster I became that night.”
“The gravity of my actions and the harm I have caused will haunt me every day,” Opdyke told them. “I wish I could take away your suffering.”
Parker rested his head in his hands and closed his eyes, then stood and left the courtroom before Opdyke finished speaking. Jenkins said he was “heartbroken” and “ashamed” by the cruel actions committed against him.
The judge said Opdyke may not have been fully aware of what being a member of the Goon Squad meant when Lt. Jeffrey Middleton asked him to join, but he knew it involved the use of excessive force.
“You weren’t a passive observer,” Lee said. “You actively participated in this brutal attack.”
All six former officers pleaded guilty last 12 months to breaking right into a home with no warrant and torturing Black men with a stun gun, a sex toy and other objects.
On TuesdayLee sentenced Hunter Elward, 31, to nearly 20 years in prison and Middleton, 46, to 17.5 years in prison, calling their actions “outrageous and despicable.” Like Opdyke and Dedmon, they were working as Rankin County sheriff’s deputies at the time of the attack.
Another former police deputy, Brett McAlpin, 53, and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield, 32, will go on trial Thursday.
Last March, a couple of months before federal prosecutors announced the charges in August, an investigation by the Associated Press linked some deputies to at the very least 4 violent encounters with black men since 2019, which left two people dead and one with lasting injuries.
The former officers clung to their cover for months until they finally pleaded guilty that they tortured Michael Corey Jenkins and Parker. Elward admitted to putting a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and firing it as part of a “mock execution” that went fallacious.
In an announcement Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland condemned the “heinous attack on the citizens they were sworn to protect.”
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The terror began on January 24, 2023, with a racist incitement to extrajudicial violence, when a white Rankin County resident complained to McAlpin that two black men were staying with a white woman in a house in Braxton. McAlpin told Dedmon texted a bunch of white deputies asking in the event that they were “available to participate in the mission.” “No bad mug shots,” he texted, which prosecutors say gives the green light to use excessive force on body parts that do not appear in the booking photo.
Once inside, they handcuffed Jenkins and his friend Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup in their faces. They forced them to strip naked and take a shower together to hide the mess. They taunted the victims with racist insults and shocked them with stun guns. Dedmon and Opdyke attacked them with a sex toy.
After Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth, splitting his tongue and breaking his jaw, they hatched a cover-up that included planting drugs and a gun. For months, false allegations were made against Jenkins and Parker.
Majority-white Rankin County lies east of the state capital, Jackson, and is home to one of the highest percentages of black residents of any major U.S. city. Officers yelled at Jenkins and Parker to “stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or ‘their side’ of the Pearl River,” court documents say.
Opdyke was the first to admit what they did, his lawyer Jeff Reynolds said Wednesday. On April 12, he showed investigators a WhatsApp text thread in which officers discussed their plan and what happened. If he had thrown the phone into the river, as another officers did, investigators may not have discovered the encrypted messages.
Reynolds also said Opdyke experienced sexual assault as a baby and viewed older deputies as father figures. That made him susceptible to a culture of misconduct inside the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, Reynolds said.
“When a new officer gets there, he starts indoctrinating people,” Reynolds said. “Where is the real leadership? Why aren’t they in this court?”
Dedmon, who planted drugs on Jenkins to frame him on false charges, said he was promoted to the position of drug investigator not despite his bad behavior, but because of it.
“It’s because instead of doing the right thing, I chose to do the wrong thing,” Dedmon said.
Dedmon, like Opdyke and Elward, also pleaded guilty to collaborating in the assault of a white man during a traffic stop on December 4, 2022 – weeks before Jenkins and Parker were tortured. On Tuesday, prosecutors released the victim’s identity as Alan Schmidt. Reynolds said Opdyke held Schmidt until Dedmon arrived but didn’t beat him or sexually assault him.
The Associated Press doesn’t typically name individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified or come forward publicly.
Schmidt’s statement, which prosecutors read in court, shows that Dedmon accused him of possessing stolen property. Schmidt said he was handcuffed, taken out of the vehicle and beaten until he “started seeing spots.”
Prosecutors said Elward and Opdyke failed to intervene when Dedmon punched and kicked him, used a stun gun on him, fired a gun into the air while threatening him and then sexually assaulted him.
“What kind of sick person does that?” – Schmidt wrote in his statement.
Dedmon admitted firing the gun into the air to intimidate Schmidt but denied sexual assault. Prosecutors said they read details of the sexual assault into the court file when Dedmon pleaded guilty, and Dedmon said he agreed with the facts presented.
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who took office in 2012 and was re-elected in November after nobody got here forward against him, has released no details about his deputies’ actions, announcing they were fired last June. After they he pleaded guilty in August, Bailey said officers had gone rogue and promised changes. Jenkins and Parker called on him to resign and contributed $400 million civil lawsuit against the faculty.
Crime
Founder of an AI Tech startup accused of fraud and combining numbers with investors
Joanna Smith-Griffin, 33, CEO of startup AllHere Education, Inc. dealing with AI education accused of defrauding investors.
The Southern District of New York prosecuted Smith-Griffin securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The grand jury indictment alleged that Smith-Griffin lied concerning the education platform’s funds and posed as a financial consultant to supply false information to investors. While acting as a financial consultant for AllHere Education, Smith-Griffin is accused of falsifying the corporate’s financial records mislead potential investors and inflate the worth of her company and its revenues.
AllHere Education is an AI-powered learning platform utilized in primary and secondary schools. Smith-Griffin has had little success integrating the K-12 platform into individual school districts in California and Georgia. However, the principal didn’t secure long-term contracts with school districts. She used these short-term partnerships to misrepresent to investors the reach and financial success of AllHere Education.
Smith-Griffin told potential AllHere investors that AllHere generated about $3.7 million in revenue in 2020, about $2.5 million in money and has major school district customers similar to New York City Department of Education (“NYC DOE”) and Atlanta Public Schools. In fact, AllHere generated roughly $11,000 in revenue in 2020, had roughly $494,000 in money, and had no contracts with many of the clients it represented, including the NYC DOE and Atlanta Public Schools.
Smith-Griffin continued to boost capital to support the startup, raising one other $10 million in funding. When the corporate collapsed financially, Smith-Griffin allegedly used the money injection to pay for an extravagant three-day wedding in Florida and a residence in North Carolina.
FBI Deputy Director James E. Dennehy commented on Smith-Griffin’s decision to prioritize her personal aspirations over the needs of an educational platform.
“Her alleged actions impacted the potential to improve the learning environment in core school districts by selfishly prioritizing personal expenses,” he said.
Smith-Griffin faces a compulsory two years in prison for the identity theft charge and a maximum of 20 years for every fraud charge. AllHere Education is currently in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Crime
Prosecutors say Sean “Diddy” Combs is trying to obstruct justice by heading to prison
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was trying to reach potential witnesses and influence public opinion while in prison in a bid to influence potential jurors in an upcoming sex trafficking trial, prosecutors said in a court filing during which they urged a judge to deny his latest bail request.
The government charges were filed Friday evening in federal court in Manhattan, which opposed the music mogul’s latest offer of $50 million bail. A bail hearing is scheduled for next week.
Prosecutors wrote that a review of recorded phone calls Combs made while in prison shows that he asked relations to contact potential victims and witnesses and urged them to create a “narrative” to influence the jury pool. They say he also encouraged the use of promoting strategies to influence public opinion.
“The defendant has demonstrated time and time again – even while in custody – that he’ll flagrantly and repeatedly disregard the foundations so as to improperly influence the consequence of his case. In other words, the defendant has demonstrated that he can’t be trusted to abide by the terms and conditions,” prosecutors wrote in a press release containing redactions.
Prosecutors wrote that from his behavior it might be inferred that Combs wanted to blackmail victims and witnesses into remaining silent or providing testimony helpful to his defense.
Combs’ lawyers didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Prosecutors said Combs, 55, began breaking the foundations almost immediately after being taken into custody Metropolitan Prison Center in Brooklyn after his September arrest.
He pleaded not guilty to the costs brought against him he abused and molested women for years with the assistance of a network of collaborators and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Two judges found he was a danger to the community and a flight risk.
His lawyers recently filed a 3rd bail application after rejecting two previous attempts, including a $50 million bail offer.
In their motion, they cited modified circumstances, including latest evidence, that they believed justified Combs’ release so he could higher prepare for his May 5 trial.
However, prosecutors said defense lawyers created the most recent bail proposal based on evidence provided to them by prosecutors, and the brand new material was already known to defense lawyers after they submitted previous bail applications.
In their presentation to the judge, prosecutors said Combs’ behavior in prison shows he must remain locked up.
For example, they said, Combs asked relations to plan and execute a social media campaign around his birthday “with the intent of influencing a potential jury in this criminal proceeding.”
He encouraged his children to post a video on their social media accounts of them gathering to have a good time his birthday, he added.
He then monitored statistics on the jail, including audience engagement, and “explicitly discussed with the family how to ensure the film would have the desired impact on potential jury members in this case,” they said.
The government also alleged that Combs made clear in other conversations that he intended to anonymously publish information that he believed would help him defend against the costs.
“Defendant’s efforts to impede the fairness of these proceedings also include his persistent efforts to contact potential witnesses, including victims of violence, who could provide strong testimony against him,” prosecutors wrote.
Crime
Celebrity chef and former NFL player Tobias Dorzon is recovering from a shooting attack
Celebrity chef and former NFL player Tobias Dorzon is recovering after being shot during an alleged robbery.
The shooting occurred on the evening of Tuesday, November 5 in Hyattsville, Maryland, when multiple suspects attempted to rob a man and woman who had just returned from dinner, based on statement from the Hyattsville Police Department.
Police said the victims were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Although authorities didn’t initially discover the victims, local council member Wanika Fisher revealed that Dorzon was amongst those attacked.
“I am disheartened and saddened by the news that Prince George’s County restaurant owner Tobias Dorzon was one of two people shot during an attempted robbery Tuesday evening in my neighborhood,” Fisher began in a news release.
She added that Dorzon, a Riverdale native, owns two “amazing” restaurants in Hyattsville and is considered a “dear” friend of hers.
“Such a terrible act could not have happened to a better person,” Fisher continued within the statement. “I offer my sincere condolences to him and the other victim, as well as their families and friends, and wish them both a speedy recovery. This type of senseless violence has no place in our county and county.”
According to Fisher, Dorzon is an “extremely talented” chef who has represented Prince George’s County on the national stage and appeared on several Food Network shows. Most recently, the 39-year-old chef participated within the Food Network’s “Last Bite Hotel,” where he made it to the ultimate 4. He also hosts “Time Out with Tobias” on ESPN.
Off-screen, Dorzon currently owns and manages a company Huncho’s house and exclusive 1123 By Chef Tobias. This spring, he was named Maryland Chef of the Year, the primary honor for somebody from Prince George’s County. In 2021 helped James Harden open his restaurant Thirteen in Houston.
Before becoming a master chef, the Maryland native played within the NFL for each the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Tennessee Titans. He also had a stint playing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League.
Every week after the shooting, Dorzon updated followers Instagram on his progress.
“I’m still here, thank you all for your prayers. See you soon…. Huncho,” he wrote within the caption of a post that included a screenshot of a tweet during which he admitted that, all things considered, he should be “God’s favorite.”
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