Six ‘Goon Squad’ officers get long prison terms for torturing two Black men
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced the last two of six white ex-law enforcement officers in Mississippi to lengthy prison terms for their torture of two Black men last year, a racist assault that reignited demands for broader police accountability.
U.S. District Judge Tom Lee, over three days, sentenced the former officers, who called themselves the “Goon Squad,” to terms ranging from 10 to 40 years in a federal penitentiary on federal civil rights charges.
The victims, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Parker, described in court this week the horrifying ordeal in which they were assaulted with a stun gun and sex toys and subjected to a mock execution across 90 minutes on Jan. 24, 2023.
The broader influence of the prosecutions of the former officers remained unclear as civil rights activists spoke out at a town hall meeting this week in Jackson, Mississippi, to demand more accountability in the case, including the resignation of Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey.
“Amidst this glimmer of accountability that is absolutely worthy of celebration, we fully appreciate the risk that this will be used by statewide officials … to pretend that cops that do bad things are held accountable in the state. It’s simply not true,” said Blake Feldman, impact policy counsel for the Mississippi Center for Justice. “The facts here made the case very difficult to cover up. The brazen misconduct also demonstrates just how confident Mississippi cops are in their systemic impunity.”
Bailey, who last year said he was ashamed of the officers’ actions and called them “a bunch of criminals,” has resisted demands to step aside. He has said he was unaware of the extrajudicial activity of the former officers. In a statement Thursday, Bailey said he would remain on the job.
“We fully cooperated with all investigative and prosecutorial efforts by federal and state officials,” he said. “As a result of those efforts, these former deputies are being held accountable for their actions.”
In the final hearing Thursday, Brett McAlpin, 53, a former high-ranking Rankin County sheriff’s deputy, was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison, and Joshua Hartfield, 32, a former officer in the Richland (Mississippi) Police Department, was sentenced to more than 10 years.
Their sentences came after Daniel Opdyke, 28, Christian Dedmon, 29, Hunter Elward, 31, and Jeffrey Middleton, 46, all former sheriff’s deputies, received prison sentences on Tuesday or Wednesday ranging from 17½ years to 40 years.
All six former officers last summer pleaded guilty to the federal charges, including conspiracy and deprivation of rights. They also have pleaded guilty to state charges but have not been sentenced.
The defendants “chose to be predators on a hate-fueled power trip,” Todd Gee, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, said in a statement. “Rather than serving Mississippi, the defendants treated it as a place where they could assault, intimidate, torture, and frame their victims at will.”
“These violations of civil rights should serve as a reminder that we still have a lot of work to do in Mississippi and this nation to ensure that law enforcement officers are properly hired, trained, equipped, supervised, and held accountable for their actions,” Gee said.
In the courthouse Thursday, prosecutors described McAlpin, who was the fourth-ranking member in the sheriff’s office, as the “mafia don” of the group. He set the assault in motion after taking a phone call from a resident in Braxton, Miss., who reported suspicious activity by two Black men living nearby.
That prompted the group of officers to force entry into the house without a search warrant and torture the victims, authorities said. In court, Jenkins and Parker described the terrifying ordeal, saying McAlpin threatened to burn down the house, according to news accounts.
The officers, without a warrant, kicked in the door and attacked the victims: using racial slurs, punching and kicking them, pouring milk, chocolate and alcohol on their faces and forcing them to shower together, authorities said.
The officers used stun guns on them repeatedly and demanded that the men stay out of Rankin County, prosecutors said. The victims were then subjected to a “mock execution,” which ended when Elward mistakenly shot Jenkins in the mouth, lacerating his tongue and breaking his jaw, according to federal prosecutors.
Though Jenkins was bleeding, the officers failed to provide medical aid and instead concocted a coverup story that included planting a gun on Jenkins and destroying evidence, authorities said.
The details of the gruesome assault have been largely made public over the past year, after the victims filed a federal civil rights law suit last June. But the sentencing hearings provoked fresh emotion.
“I felt like a slave,” Jenkins said in a statement read by his attorney. Parker told the court that he “saw the devil come to me, in my face, in my home, where I was supposed to be safe.”
Opdyke cried while apologizing for his actions and calling himself a “monster.” McAlpin also apologized, saying, “I’m sorry for what you went through … What happened was wrong.”
Judge Lee said Dedmon, who received the 40-year sentence, committed the most brutal and egregious acts, firing his gun twice during the attack to intimidate. Dedmon and Elward were also being punished for a separate case in which they pleaded guilty to brutalizing a White man in December 2022.
In a statement Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said: “The depravity of the crimes committed by these defendants cannot be overstated.”
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