Former Mississippi officers known as the 'Goon Squad' sentenced on state charges

[April 11, 2024]  By Brendan O'Brien
 
(Reuters) - Six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers received sentences ranging from 10 to 45 years in prison on Wednesday on state charges for their roles in the "Goon Squad" torture and sexual abuse of two Black men.   

The defendants were sentenced in Rankin County Court in Brandon, where they pleaded guilty in August to state charges including aggravated assault, burglary, home invasion and hindering prosecution.

The men were accused of taking part in a January 2023 home-invasion assault, which has stood out among dozens of racially charged police misconduct cases in recent years for its chilling, calculated brutality.

The two victims, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, were handcuffed, stripped naked, beaten, sexually assaulted and subjected to electric Taser shocks and waterboarding as the officers screamed racial slurs at them, according to accounts filed by prosecutors in the case.

Jenkins' attorney Malik Shabazz read a statement on behalf of his client before the sentencing. "They tried to take my manhood from me. They did some unimaginable things to me and the effects will last on my life forever," the statement said.

Each of the former officers, who were shackled and dressed in prison garb, took their turn in front Circuit Court Judge Steve Ratcliff.

He sentenced three of them - Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke - to 20 years in prison, while Christian Dedmon was given 25 years and Joshua Hartfield 15 years.

Hunter Elward, who received a 45-year prison sentence, was accused of shoving a pistol into Jenkins' mouth in a "mock execution" that went wrong when he pulled the trigger, court records showed. Jenkins' jaw was shattered and his tongue was lacerated by the gunshot.

Five of the former lawmen worked for Rankin County Sheriff's Office. Hartfield was a former narcotics investigator from the police force in Richland, Mississippi.

The men will serve their state prison terms concurrently with sentences ranging from 10 to 40 years handed down two weeks ago in federal court. They had pleaded guilty in August to federal charges that included civil rights conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

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