Two Mississippi officers sentenced in federal 'Goon Squad' torture case

[March 20, 2024]  By Brendan O'Brien and Steve Gorman

(Reuters) -Two white former Mississippi sheriff's deputies who belonged to a group calling itself "the Goon Squad" were sentenced on Tuesday to lengthy prison terms for U.S. civil rights violations and other felonies stemming from their torture and sexual abuse of two Black men.

Hunter Elward, 31, received a prison sentence of 20 years and Jeffrey Middleton, 46, was sentenced to 17-1/2 years in back-to-back proceedings in a federal courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Both pleaded guilty with four other former law enforcement officers last August to multiple felony offenses, including civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice.

The four co-defendants were scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday and Thursday.

Elward and Middleton, along with Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon and Daniel Opdyke, were Rankin County sheriff's deputies. Middleton held the rank of lieutenant. The sixth defendant, Joshua Hartfield, was a police officer in Richland, Mississippi.

The former lawmen, all of them white, referred to themselves as "the Goon Squad" because of their willingness to clandestinely engage in excessive force, according to court documents filed in the case.

The two victims, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, were brutalized while held captive and handcuffed during a two-hour ordeal that started when the six officers invaded their home and ended with Jenkins shot in the mouth.

U.S. Attorney General, in a statement announcing the first two sentencings, said the defendants had committed a "heinous attack on citizens they had sworn an oath to protect."

"I don’t think any commentary is necessary because it’s so apparent the egregious and despicable nature of the crimes," U.S. District Judge Tom Lee, said as he sentenced Elward to 241 months, according to WLBT News, an NBC affiliate in Jackson, the state capital.

Addressing the court moments before he was sentenced, Elward turned to the two victims and asked their forgiveness, according to WLBT's account of the hearing.

"I was raised as a Christian, and I’ve slacked off, but I’m going to do better and seek counseling," Elward said. "That’s my only way out, the only choice I have now. ... I accept all responsibility. I’m going to accept the court’s decision today. Regardless, I hope you understand I am truly sorry.”

Parker, sitting in the front row with family and friends, stood up and replied, “I forgive you.”

Middleton was sentenced to 17 years and six months following a mid-day recess in the proceedings.

ASSAULT AND MOCK EXECUTION

According to federal prosecutors, the six defendants stormed into the victims' home in Braxton, Mississippi, without a search warrant on Jan. 24, 2023, after the sheriff's office had received a complaint from a white neighbor that they had seen "suspicious behavior" from the Black men living there.

Upon entering the home without warning or probable cause, the officers detained Jenkins and Parker, demanding to know "where the drugs were," court documents said.

For nearly two hours, the officers physically and sexually assaulted Jenkins and Parker, even water-boarding and shocking their victims with Tasers while screaming racial slurs at the two men, according to court documents.

Dedmon then shoved 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.

Rather than render medical aid to Jenkins as he lay bleeding on the floor, the officers reassembled outside to devise a cover story. To bolster their fake narrative, they left a gun at the scene, destroyed surveillance video, tried to burn the victims' clothes and planted illegal drugs in the house.

Jenkins and Parker filed a $400 million federal civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County last June.

Opdyke and Dedmon were scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday, and Hartfield and McAlpin on Thursday.

The guilty pleas entered in federal court in August were part of a larger agreement that included guilty pleas to state charges. A date has not yet been set for the sentencing in the state case. The defendants are to serve their federal and state sentences concurrently.

Black residents in poor areas of Rankin County, which lies along he Pearl River in central Mississippi, said they are routinely targets of police brutality, a New York Times-Mississippi Today investigation found.

In response, Mississippi lawmakers proposed a bill last year that would allow state officials to investigate and revoke the police license of officers accused of misconduct, regardless of whether they have been charged.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Donna Bryson, Bill Berkrot, Alistair Bell and David Gregorio)

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