Crime
Former officers who tortured Michael Corey Jenkins, Eddie Parker with stun guns and sex toys received prison sentences
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Six former Mississippi law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to a protracted list of state and federal charges for torturing two Black men can be sentenced by a federal judge starting Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Tom Lee will sentence two defendants every day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after delaying proceedings twice. Each faces the potential of a long time behind bars.
The former law officers pleaded guilty in August to subjecting Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to multiple acts of brutal, racially motivated torture. In a January 2023 episode, a bunch of six people broke right into a Rankin County home with no warrant and attacked Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Parker with stun guns, a sex toy and other items.
The terror began on January 24, 2023, with racist incitement to extrajudicial violence.
A white person called Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two black men were with a white woman at a house in Braxton, Mississippi. McAlpin told Deputy Christian Dedmon texted a bunch of white deputies who were so willing to make use of excessive force that they called themselves “The Goon Squad.”
Once inside, they handcuffed Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup of their faces. They forced them to strip naked and take a shower together to cover the mess. They taunted the victims with racist insults and shocked them with stun guns.
After a mock execution went mistaken when Jenkins was shot within the mouth, they devised a cover-up that included planting drugs and weapons. For months, false allegations were made against Jenkins and Parker.
Before the decision was announced, Jenkins and Parker called for the “harshest of sentences” at a press conference on Monday.
“It was very difficult for me and for us,” Jenkins said. “We hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
Jenkins suffered a lacerated tongue and a broken jaw. He still has problems speaking and eating.
Malik Shabazz, a lawyer representing each men, said the end result of the sentencing hearings could have national ramifications.
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“Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker continue to suffer emotionally and physically from this horrific and bloody attack by Rankin County officers,” Shabazz said. “A message needs to be sent to police in Mississippi and across America, this level of criminal conduct will be met with the harshest consequences.”
In the months before prosecutors announced charges in August 2023, an Associated Press investigation linked some deputies to at the very least 4 violent encounters with black men since 2019, leaving two dead and one suffering lasting injuries.
The charged officers are McAlpin, Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, and Joshua Hartfield, a Richland police officer. They pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to persecute, obstruction of justice, deprivation of rights under law, discharging a firearm in furtherance of against the law of violence and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Most of their attorneys didn’t immediately reply to emails in search of comment Monday. Jason Kirschberg, representing Opdyke, said: “Daniel accepted responsibility for his actions and omissions. (…) He admitted he was wrong and feels deep remorse for the pain he caused the victims.”
Under the federal charges, Dedmon and Elward face a maximum sentence of 120 years plus life in prison and $2.75 million in fines. Hartfield faces 80 years and $1.5 million, McAlpin faces 90 years and $1.75 million, Middleton faces 80 years and $1.5 million, and Opdyke could possibly be sentenced to 100 years with a $2 million wonderful.
The former officers agreed to prosecutors’ really helpful sentences of 5 to 30 years in state court, however the time served on separate state convictions will run concurrently with potentially longer federal sentences.
Majority-white Rankin County lies east of the state capital, Jackson, and is home to one among the very best percentages of black residents of any major U.S. city.
Officers warned Jenkins and Parker to “stay out of Rankin County and return to Jackson or ‘their side’ of the Pearl River,” court documents say, referring to an area with the next concentration of black residents.
Federal prosecutors saw echoes of Mississippi’s dark history within the gruesome crimes committed by those charged with enforcing the law, including the 1964 killings of three civil rights activists after a deputy turned them over to the Ku Klux Klan.
For months, Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, whose deputies committed the crimes, said little concerning the incident. After the officers pleaded guilty in August, Bailey said the officers had acted unfairly and promised to alter the department. Jenkins and Parker called for his resignation and filed a $400 million civil lawsuit against the department.
Crime
Sean “Diddy” Combs faces five new sexual assault trials
Several more plaintiffs got here forward this week accusing rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexual abuse. On November 19, three men and two women filed separate complaints against the Bad Boy Records founder through Tony Buzbee, a lawyer who previously said he would represent greater than 100 clients accusing Combs of misconduct.
“For years, Combs and his companies have engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of violence against women, men and minors,” the entire complaints read: in keeping with People magazine. “This abuse was at times verbal, emotional, physical and sexual. As part of his pattern of molestation, Combs manipulated both men and women into participating in highly orchestrated performances of sexual activity, with both prostitutes and unsuspecting partygoers.”
The new plaintiffs include an unidentified man who claims the rapper sexually assaulted him when he was 39 years old. At a house party in New York in 2022, the plaintiff alleged that he was given a drink that left him feeling disoriented and uncontrolled. his body, which ultimately caused him to lose consciousness.
When he regained consciousness, he recalls being in a “dark bedroom with black walls, on a bed with black sheets”, where he realized that Combs was “sodomizing him”. The plaintiff claims he fought with the rapper before leaving the party.
Other male plaintiffs, including an unnamed former actor, remember feeling disoriented, passing out and waking up as Combs sexually assaulted them. With allegations dating back to 2001, all five complaints said Combs’ alleged abuse was “shockingly typical” since the star believed he was “above the law.”
“That said, Mr. Combs vehemently and categorically denies as false and defamatory any claim that he sexually abused anyone, including minors,” attorney Erica Wolff added in a press release. “He looks forward to proving his innocence and defending himself in court where the truth will be determined by evidence, not speculation.”
Combs is currently in federal custody awaiting trial on criminal charges including sex trafficking and racketeering. The star’s trial is scheduled to happen in May 2025.
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.
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