Crime
Two former officers convicted of torturing and sexually abusing black men receive sentences of 27 and 10 years in prison
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A federal judge on Thursday accomplished sentencing to prison terms of about 10 to 40 years six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to breaking right into a home with no warrant and torturing two black men in an hour-long attack that included beatings, multiple uses of Tasers and assaults with a sex toy before one of the victims was shot in the mouth.
U.S. District Judge Tom Lee called the perpetrators’ actions “outrageous and despicable” and handed down sentences near the utmost federal guidelines for five of the six men who attacked Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker.
The exception was Joshua Hartfield, 32, a former police officer who didn’t work with others in the sheriff’s department and was not a member of the “Thug Squad.” He was the last of six former officers sentenced over three days this week, months after all of them pleaded guilty.
Before handing Hartfield a 10-year prison sentence Thursday, Lee said Hartfield had no history of using excessive force and was drawn into this violent episode by one of his former deputies, Christian Dedmon, who received a 40-year sentence. Lee, nonetheless, said Hartfield didn’t intervene in the violence and participated in a cover-up.
Brett McAlpin, 53, the fourth-highest rating officer with the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, received a sentence of about 27 years in prison Thursday. McAlpin nodded to his family in the courtroom and apologized before the judge sentenced him.
“It was all bad, very bad. This is not how people should treat each other, much less how law enforcement should treat people,” said McAlpin, who didn’t take a look at the victims as he spoke. “I’m truly sorry that I was involved in something that made law enforcement look so bad.”
Lee sentenced Christian Dedmon, 29, to 40 years in prison and Daniel Opdyke, 28, to 17.5 years in prison Wednesday. He gave about 20 years to Hunter Elward (31) and 17.5 years to Jeffrey Middleton (46). (*10*)Tuesday. All but Hartfield served in the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office near Jackson, the Mississippi state capital.
In looking for a lengthy sentence, federal prosecutor Christopher Perras said McAlpin wasn’t technically a member of the Goon Squad, but “he molded them into the thugs they became.”
Parker told investigators that McAlpin acted like a “mafia don” as he gave instructions to officers throughout the evening. Prosecutors said other deputies often tried to impress McAlpin, and Opdyke’s attorney said Wednesday that his client viewed McAlpin as a father figure.
The younger deputies tried to recollect how they started off “wanting to be good law enforcement officers and turned into monsters,” Perras said Thursday.
“How did these deputies learn to treat one other human being like this? “Your honor, the answer is right there,” Perras said, turning and pointing at McAlpin.
In March 2023, several months before federal prosecutors announced charges in August, an investigation by the Associated Press linked some deputies to no less than 4 violent encounters with black men since 2019, which left two people dead and one with lasting injuries.
The officers made up false accusations against the victims, planted weapons and drugs on the crime scene, and stuck to their cover for months before finally admitting their guilt. that they tortured Jenkins and Parker. Elward admitted to putting a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and firing a shot in what federal prosecutors said was a “mock execution.”
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In an announcement read Thursday by his lawyer, Jenkins said he “felt like a slave” and was “left to die like a dog.”
“If those in charge of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office can participate in this type of torture, God help us all. And God help Rankin County,” Jenkins said.
The terror began on January 24, 2023, with a racist incitement to extrajudicial violence, when a white person 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,” Dedmon wrote, which prosecutors say gives a green light to make use of excessive force on body parts that do not appear in the booking photo.
Dedmon also brought in Hartfield, who was instructed to cover the back door of the property in the course of the illegal entry.
Once inside, the officers mocked the victims with racist insults and shocked them with stun guns. They handcuffed them and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup on their faces. Dedmon and Opdyke attacked them with a sex toy. They forced them to strip naked and take a shower together to cover the mess.
After Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth, splitting his tongue and breaking his jaw, they hatched a canopy. Deputies agreed to plant the drugs, and Jenkins and Parker faced false charges for months.
According to prosecutors, McAlpin and Middleton, the oldest men in the group, threatened to kill the opposite officers in the event that they spoke out. In court Thursday, McAlpin’s attorney, Aafram Sellers, said only Middleton threatened to kill the opposite officers.
Sellers also questioned probation officer Allie Whitten on the stand about the small print presented to the judge. When federal investigators questioned the neighbor who called McAlpin, the person testified that he saw “trashy” people in the home, each white and black, Sellers said. This calls into query whether the episode began because of race, he argued.
Federal prosecutors said a neighbor referred to the house’s occupants as “those people” and “thugs.” The information contained in the indictments, which the officers didn’t dispute when pleading guilty, shows that some of them used racist taunts and epithets throughout the episode.
Predominantly white Rankin County lies east of Jackson and is home to at least one of the very best percentages of black residents of any major U.S. city. The officers yelled at Jenkins and Parker to “stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or ‘their side’ of the Pearl River,” the court document said.
Attorneys for several sheriff’s deputies said their clients were caught up in a culture of corruption that was not only allowed but encouraged by sheriff’s office leaders.
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who took office in 2012, released no details about his deputies’ actions when 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 school. Last November, Bailey was re-elected unopposed for one more four-year term.
Crime
Buku Abi, R. Kelly’s daughter, claims he sexually abused her as a child
R. Kelly is serving two concurrent sentences on charges starting from child pornography and soliciting sex from minors to racketeering and sex trafficking in each Chicago and New York, but his daughter now publicly claims she is amongst dozens of his victims.
Buki Abi, born Joann Kelly, speaks for the primary time in “R. “Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey” is currently streaming on the TVEI network. As reported People magazine through the two-part documentary, Abi, now 26, claims Kelly sexually abused her when she was 8 or 9 years old.
“I just remember waking up to him touching me,” she recalled tearfully within the second episode. “And I didn’t know what to do, so I just lay there and pretended to sleep.
“(My father) was all the pieces to me. For a very long time I didn’t even wish to imagine that it had happened. I didn’t know that even when he was a bad person, he would do something to me,” Abi explains within the documentary. “I used to be too scared to inform anyone. I used to be too afraid to inform my mom.
Abi further stated that on the age of 10, just a 12 months after her father was acquitted on child pornography charges in Chicago, she finally reported the abuse to her mother, R. Kelly’s ex-wife Andrea Kelly. The two filed a grievance with local police under the pseudonym “Jane Doe,” but no further motion was taken.
“They couldn’t charge him because I waited too long. That’s why at this point in my life I felt like I said something for nothing,” Abi said.
Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, appears to verify the filing of the grievance, saying in a statement to People magazine: “Mr. Kelly vehemently denies these allegations. His ex-wife made the identical allegation years ago, and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigated the case and located it to be unfounded. Bonjean further states that the filmmakers haven’t contacted R. Kelly or his team for comment.
In “R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey” Abi is joined by her mother, brothers Jaah and Robert Jr., and her maternal grandparents to debate life after her father’s beliefs. The documentary also reportedly examines the regularity of “delayed disclosure” by sexual assault survivors, and the impact of the alleged abuse on Abi’s life, including self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
“I got to the purpose where I didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care if I lived or died,” he recalled. “(My mom) was really worried and at that point I broke down and had to tell her, ‘I don’t think I’m okay.’ I don’t think I can do it. I don’t think I’ll be able to live the rest of my life.”
Abi is now expecting her first child and has no plans to introduce him to her father, for whom she says prison is a “well-suited place.”
“I really feel like that one millisecond completely changed my entire life, it changed who I was as a person, it changed the glow that I had and the light that I carried,” she said, later adding: “And even to this day I’m very attached to it I’m struggling.”
“R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey” is currently streaming on the TVEI network.
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Crime
New York AG’s Letitia James urges Supreme Court justices to reinstate murder charges against officer who “intentionally” drove an SUV into a vehicle, killing an 11-year-old black girl
New York’s Supreme Court of Appeals has reinstated murder charges against a retired state trooper within the death of an 11-year-old black girl 4 years ago after he allegedly crashed his police vehicle into her family’s SUV “like the Dukes of Hazard,” judges say. noted within the ruling.
Christopher G. Baldner faces charges of second-degree murder within the death of Monica Goods of Brooklyn and 6 counts of first-degree reckless endangerment following his initial indictment in October 2021.
But earlier this 12 months, Ulster County Superior Court Judge Bryan Rounds found that the evidence didn’t convincingly show that Baldner acted with a “betrayed indifference to human life” during a fatal traffic accident involving the family’s Dodge Journey in December 2020
As a result, Rounds dismissed the murder charge, effectively leaving Baldner to face only lesser crimes. He also reduced the reckless endangerment charges, limiting them to second-degree violations and cutting the overall number in half.
New York Attorney General Letitia James later challenged the result, appealing to the Appellate Division of the Third Judicial Department of the State Supreme Court, which agreed to reinstate all charges within the case Opinion 4-1 was given in Albany last Thursday.
Only one judge expressed opposition to the decision, while the bulk referred to the cruel language contained in the unique indictment issued within the case.
“The grand jury heard that in September 2019, the defendant ‘came out of the woods like gambling princes’ in his state police vehicle with sirens activated when he observed a minivan traveling at 80 miles per hour,” he added. is the opinion.
“The evidence of the December 2020 incident is comparable. The grand jury heard from witnesses that at roughly 11:40 p.m., the defendant “was looking to see if he could get one last ticket” before meeting his partner when he stopped an SUV for speeding.”
The court referred to the classic television series “The Dukes of Hazzard” – known for its shocking automobile chases and high-speed stunts.
In his dissent, Justice J.P. Egan Jr. admitted that Baldner “performed his job in a reckless and undisciplined manner” but argued that his actions didn’t constitute a “total disregard for human life”.
But the bulk disagreed, declaring that even when Baldner applied the brakes on his work vehicle throughout the pursuit, it was to “intentionally ram the SUV.”
The court emphasized that such actions are permitted under state police regulations only within the presence of a superior officer, and that Baldner’s behavior was consistent with a previous pattern of behavior.
The girl’s father, Tristan Goods, was behind the wheel of the SUV when the situation rapidly escalated following a traffic stop.
“(D)efendant initiated the traffic stop by angrily and vulgarly accusing Goods of driving over 100 miles per hour,” the ruling said, according to an affidavit filed by the girl’s father. “An argument ensued between the defendant and Goods in front of Goods’ wife and two children, who attempted to calm him down.”
Witnesses say the defendant left to pick up a supervisor but returned and pepper-sprayed the SUV without notice, causing Goods’ wife and kids to scream in pain. Goods, shielding his eyes, fled the scene when the spray can was found contained in the vehicle.
Baldner immediately gave chase, reporting to the dispatcher that the SUV was “getting away” and his pepper spray was still inside.
James’ post-indictment statement states that throughout the pursuit, Baldner rear-ended an SUV twice with the police vehicle. After the second time, the SUV rolled over several times before coming to rest the wrong way up.
Monica Goods was ejected from the vehicle and died from her injuries before the ambulance arrived.
The ruling stated that the appellate court accepted the daddy’s account of the incident, while emphasizing a very powerful details regarding the circumstances of every collision.
Attorney General James released a statement last week praising the court’s decision to hold Baldner accountable.
“As a former state trooper, Christopher Baldner was responsible for serving and protecting the people of New York, but the indictment accuses him of violating that sacred oath and using his vehicle as a deadly weapon, resulting in the senseless death of a young girl,” Jacob wrote.
“While nothing can return Monica Goods to the loving arms of her family, this court decision will enable my office to continue its efforts to obtain some semblance of justice for the Goods family. We must hold law enforcement to the highest standards and we will continue to work on this case to ensure justice is served.”
In one other statement concerning the ruling, the New York State Police Benevolent Association criticized the court’s decision.
“We strongly disagree with the decision, which we believe inappropriately reinstated the charge of ‘depraved indifference,’” the union said.
“We are deeply concerned that this ruling, if upheld, would set a dangerous precedent that would undermine the power of law enforcement officers to effectively do their jobs and protect and serve the general public. The PBA will proceed to support retired Trooper Baldner and canopy his legal fees as he seeks permission to appeal this decision.
Crime
Two white men arrested on hate crime charges after terrorizing black woman at Louisiana Walmart
Two white men have finally been arrested after being accused of harassing and terrorizing a black woman in what authorities are calling a hate crime. Dylan Reynolds and Micahel Walters were wanted on hate crime charges stemming from an incident that occurred Nov. 29 at a Walmart in West Monroe, Louisiana. reports.
According to the report, police were called in reference to a disturbance and property damage issue, and once they arrived, they found that the victim, a black woman, had been “intimidated while exiting the store in the parking lot…for no apparent reason.” The unidentified woman was accosted by Reynolds and Walters as she was exiting the Walmart and loading her belongings into her automotive. In the car parking zone, the men allegedly yelled at the woman and called her a “nigger.”
The woman tried to flee in her automotive, but one in all the 2 men chased her on foot, pushing an empty shopping cart. He then allegedly used a shopping card to hit the back of the woman’s automotive when she slowed down for “speed bumps” within the car parking zone near the doorway to the constructing, the police report noted. The woman’s automotive was damaged, costing her greater than $1,000 in repairs, and police also said her safety was threatened “while driving away from the two aggressors.”
After allegedly damaging the woman’s automotive, the men fled in a dark gray Dodge Ram 2500 pickup truck. The incident was captured on store surveillance footage. Both men were arrested and booked into the Ouachita Correction Center Thursday evening. Bail was set at $20,000 for every man Friday, reports.
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