‘Goon Squad’ officers who tortured Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker sentenced in state court

Rankin County District Judge Steve Ratcliff on Wednesday handed down the boys’s multi-year state sentences, which can run concurrently or concurrently with their federal sentences, and the boys will serve their sentences in federal penitentiaries.

BRANDON, Miss. (AP) – Six former Mississippi law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to an extended list of state and federal charges for torturing two black men were already sentenced to federal prison Wednesday in state court.

Six white former law enforcement officers in Mississippi who attacked Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker in January 2023 have already been sentenced to federal prison from about 10 to 40 years. In March, U.S. District Judge Tom Lee called their actions “outrageous and despicable,” handing down sentences near the best federal guidelines for five of the six men.

Rankin County District Judge Steve Ratcliff on Wednesday gave the boys multi-year state sentences that were shorter than the federal prison time they already received but longer than what state prosecutors had beneficial. The time served on the state sentences will run concurrently or concurrently with the federal sentences, and the boys will serve their sentences in federal prisons.

The case sparked outrage from the nation’s top law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, who said the officers committed a “heinous attack on the citizens they were sworn to protect.” Local residents saw echoes of Mississippi history in the gruesome details of the episode racist atrocities by people in power.

The first defendant to be sentenced Wednesday was Brett McAlpin, the fourth-highest rating officer with the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office. McAlpin was previously sentenced by a federal judge to roughly 27 years in federal prison. On Wednesday, a state court sentenced him to fifteen years in prison on one count and five years on the opposite.

Before the sentencing, Malik Shabazz, an attorney representing Jenkins and Parker, said the state sentencing hearing can be a “test” for Ratliff and state prosecutors.

“State criminal sentences are important because Mississippi has historically lagged behind or ignored racist crimes and police brutality against Black people, and the Department of Justice has had to lead,” Shabazz said.

The defendants are five former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies – McAlpin, 53; Hunter Elward, 31; Christian Dedmon, 29; Jeffrey Middleton, 46; and Daniel Opdyke, 28, and former Richland City Police Officer Joshua Hartfield, 32, who was off-duty on the time of the assault.

All six former officers He pleaded guilty to the state charges brought against him obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct prosecution. Dedmon and Elward, who kicked in the door, also admitted breaking into the home.

There were accusations an Associated Press investigation in March it linked some officers to at the very least 4 violent encounters since 2019 that resulted in the deaths of two Black men.

The former law enforcement officers pleaded guilty to breaking right into a home with no warrant and torturing Jenkins and Parker in an hours-long attack that included beatings, repeated use of stun guns and assaults with a sex toy before one among the victims was shot in the mouth.

According to federal prosecutors, the phobia began on January 24, 2023, with a 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 Christian Dedmon, who 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 Parker, then poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup in their faces while taunting them with racial slurs. They forced them to strip naked and take a shower together to cover the mess. They taunted the victims with racist slurs and attacked them with sexual objects.

In a mock execution that went improper, Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth, splitting his tongue and breaking his jaw. The officers got here up with a cover-up and agreed to plant drugs on Jenkins and Parker. For months, false charges were brought against the boys.

According to prosecutors, McAlpin and Middleton, the oldest in the group, threatened to kill other officers in the event that they spoke out. According to his lawyer Jeff Reynolds, Opdyke was the primary to confess what they did. Opdyke showed investigators a WhatsApp text thread in which officers discussed their plan, Reynolds said.

The only defendant who didn’t face a federal prison term that exceeded the sentencing criteria was Hartfield, who didn’t work with others in the sheriff’s department and was not a member of the “Thug Squad.”

In federal court, deputies expressed remorse for his or her actions and apologized to Jenkins and Parker. Several of their attorneys said their clients were caught up in a culture of corruption encouraged by sheriff’s office leaders.

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey didn’t release any details about his deputies’ actions when he announced 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.

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