Six white ex-cops in Mississippi plead guilty in brutal racist attack on two Black men
Six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday after they tased, abused and assaulted two Black men — including shooting one in the mouth — in a racist torture attack in Rankin County in January.
U.S. prosecutors charged the six defendants with 16 felony counts, including a “civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice,” according to the news release from the Department of Justice.
The charges were unsealed Thursday as the fired officers appeared in federal court in Jackson.
“No human being should ever be subjected to the kind of torturous, traumatizing and horrific acts of violence that were carried out by these law enforcement officers,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the release.
Brett McAlpin, 52, Christian Dedmon, 28, Jeffrey Middleton, 46, Hunter Elward, 31, and Daniel Opdyke, 27, are the five former Rankin County sheriff’s department deputies charged in the case. The sixth defendant — 31-year-old former narcotics investigator Joshua Hartfield — worked at the Richland Police Department.
The defendants admitted that on Jan. 24, they tortured two Black men in Rankin County. The two men — Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker — have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County and sought $400 million in damages, The Associated Press reported.
In a statement, Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey called the crimes “devastating.”
“Deputies of this department are sworn to protect and serve the public and uphold all federal and state laws,” he said. “Based on today’s arrests, five former deputies violated all such standards, their training, and my expectations of them. The badge worn by so many has been tarnished by the criminal acts of these few individuals.”
The Department of Justice said the deputies and officer — without a warrant — kicked down the door of a home in Braxton, handcuffed Jenkins and Parker without probable cause, called them racial slurs and “warned them to stay out of Rankin County.”
They tased the two men 17 times, forced them to “ingest liquids” and assaulted them with a sex object, according to the news release.
The Department of Justice also found Elward thrust an unloaded gun into Jenkins’ mouth, and when it did not fire a first time, he fired again, sending a bullet through Jenkins’ tongue that broke his jaw and sliced through his neck.
Dedmon fired his gun twice, apparently in attempt to intimidate Jenkins and Parker.
The Department of Justice found that all defendants left Jenkins bleeding on his floor and stood outside the home, devising a fake story to cover up their attack, according to the news release. They planted a gun on Jenkins, destroyed surveillance video, shell casings and taser cartridges. They sent fake drug evidence to a crime lab, filed false reports and pressured witnesses to follow their cover-up story, the release said.
Opdyke’s attorney, Jeff Reynolds, told the New York Times that he takes full responsibility for his actions.
“He admits he was wrong for his part in the horrific harms inflicted upon Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker, the victims, that night last January and is prepared to face the consequences of his actions,” Mr. Reynolds said in email to the Times.
In court, three defendants said they were members of “The Goon Squad” — a group of Rankin County officers who often used excessive force but never reported it.
Dedmon, Elward and Opdyke also pleaded guilty to three other felony offenses that took place on Dec. 4, 2022, when Dedmon beat and tased a white man and fired a gun near his head in attempt to force a confession. Elward and Opdyke did not intervene, the release states.
The defendants now face state charges that stem from the same incidents. Those charges include home invasion, aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and obstruction of justice.
In the release, U.S.prosecutors called the defendants’ actions egregious, shameful and horrific, according to the news release.
“These former law enforcement officers have committed heinous and wanton acts of violence disgracing the badge which so many others have worn with pride and honor,” said U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca for the Southern District of Mississippi. “They violated their oaths and have become the criminals they were sworn to protect us from.”
The officers are in federal custody and will be sentenced in mid-November, according to The Associated Press.
This story was originally published August 3, 2023 at 7:44 PM.