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Two more Mississippi lawmakers are scheduled to be sentenced today for torturing and sexually abusing black men

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The execution continues Wednesday within the case of a white former law enforcement officer in Mississippi who pleaded guilty last 12 months to breaking right into a home with no warrant and torturing two black men with a stun gun, a sex toy and other objects.

Daniel Opdyke, 28, and Christian Dedmon, 29, will appear individually before U.S. District Judge Tom Lee. They face long prison sentences.

On Tuesday, Lee sentenced 31-year-old Hunter Elward and 46-year-old Jeffrey Middleton to nearly 20 years in prison. Like Opdyke and Dedmon, they were working as Rankin County sheriff’s deputies on 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.

This photo combination shows (from top left) former Rankin County Sheriff’s deputies Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke and former Richland Police Officer Joshua Hartfield in August 2023 appearing in Rankin County District Court in Brandon, Mississippi. (Photo / s: Rogelio V. Solis/AP, file)

Former officers admitted several months ago that they tortured Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker. Elward admitted to putting a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and firing a shot as a part of a “mock execution” that went unsuitable.

In a press release Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland condemned the “heinous attack on the citizens they were sworn to protect.”

Before Lee sentenced Elward and Middleton, he called their actions “outrageous and despicable.”

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, who texted a bunch of white deputies who were so willing to use excessive force that they called themselves “The Goon Squad.”

Once inside, they handcuffed Jenkins and his friend Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup of 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 attacked them with a sex toy.

After Elward shot Jenkins within the mouth, they hatched a cover-up that included planting drugs and a gun. For months, false allegations were made against Jenkins and Parker. Jenkins suffered a lacerated tongue and a broken jaw.

Majority-white Rankin County lies east of the state capital, Jackson, and is home to one in all the 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.

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Dedmon can be scheduled to be sentenced for his leading role within the assault on a white man that occurred before Jenkins and Parker were tortured. On Tuesday, prosecutors identified the victim for the primary time as Alan Schmidt and reviewed his statement, which detailed what happened to him on December 4, 2022.

Schmidt said that in a traffic stop that night, Rankin County deputies charged him with possession of stolen property. They handcuffed him, dragged him out of the vehicle and beat him until he “started seeing spots.” The statement said Dedmon fired a gun into the air and forced Schmidt to his knees.

Dedmon put a gun to Schmidt’s temple and tried to put his genitals in the person’s mouth as Elward watched, and Dedmon grabbed Schmidt’s genitals through the ordeal as the person screamed, Schmidt said. The attack didn’t stop until officers took Schmidt to jail.

“What form of sick person does that? He already has a lot power over us that if he behaves like this, he must really have a extremely sick mind,” Schmidt wrote in his statement.

Last March, months before federal prosecutors announced charges in August, an Associated Press investigation linked some deputies to at the least 4 violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two people dead and one with everlasting injuries. damage.

Elward and Middlelton apologized in court with emotion. Elward’s attorney, Joe Hollomon, said his client first witnessed Rankin County deputies turning a blind eye to misconduct in 2017.

“Hunter (Elward) was privy to the culture of corruption within the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office,” Hollomon said.

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 change the department. Jenkins and Parker called for his resignation and filed a $400 million civil lawsuit against the department.


This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Founder of an AI Tech startup accused of fraud and combining numbers with investors

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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.


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Prosecutors say Sean “Diddy” Combs is trying to obstruct justice by heading to prison

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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.

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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.

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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.

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Celebrity chef and former NFL player Tobias Dorzon is recovering from a shooting attack

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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.”

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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.

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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.”


This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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