April 11, (THEWILL) – Six former Mississippi law enforcement officers have been sentenced to decades in prison on Wednesday, after pleading guilty to state charges related to the racially motivated torture, sexual assault and shooting of two Black men in January 2023, and their subsequent actions to cover up their crimes.
The officers, all white include five former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies — Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, as well as former Richland police officer, Joshua Hartfield.
Dubbed as the “Goon Squad” for their willingness to use excessive force, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, the six former officers had pleaded guilty in a Rankin County Circuit Court on Aug. 14, 2023, to aggravated assault, home invasion, obstruction of justice/hindering prosecution in the first degree and conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice.
McAlpin, Middleton and Opdyke were each sentenced Wednesday to 15 years, according to the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, while Elward and Dedmon were sentenced to 20 years and Hartfield to 10 years.
According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), the officers had arrested Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker “without probable cause” that they committed any crimes.
In their guilty pleas, the six admitted to breaking into a home where Jenkins and Parker were residing without a warrant after a white neighbour reported that the men were staying with a white woman and alleged “suspicious” activity.
During the incident, the DoJ said the officers beat Jenkins and Parker, mocked them with racial slurs, sexually assaulted them with a sex toy, forced them to strip naked and shower together and shocked them with Tasers for roughly 90 minutes while handcuffed. Jenkins was also shot in the mouth by Elward.
Mississippi Attorney General, Lynn Fitch, said in a statement on Wednesday, following the sentencing that the officers “violated the trust of all the citizens they swore to protect.”
“These former officers also violated the trust of the other men and women who honorably wear the uniform – every one of whom will feel the repercussions of the mistrust they sowed between law enforcement and the people. These criminal acts make a difficult job even harder and far more dangerous. And it is left to us all to commit ourselves to repairing that damage”, Fitch added.
Wednesday’s court sentencing comes after all six officers pleaded guilty to 16 felony charges related to this case in federal court last August and received federal prison sentences ranging from 10 to 40 years in March. They will serve the federal and the state sentences concurrently.
“The depravity of the crimes committed by these defendants cannot be overstated, and they will now spend between 10 and 40 years in prison for their heinous attack on citizens they had sworn to protect. Officers who violate constitutional rights will be held accountable by the Justice Department for their crimes that harm individual victims and betray the trust of entire communities”, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on March 21.
