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
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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