'Violent police misconduct': 6 plead guilty in torture, sexual assault of Black men in Mississippi

Six white former law enforcement officers in Mississippi have pleaded guilty to federal charges in the beating and sexual assault of two Black men, one of whom was also shot in the mouth.

The five former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies and another officer appeared in federal court Thursday and pleaded guilty to 13 federal felony offenses, including 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.

"The details of the crimes these defendants committed is a horrific and stark example of violent police misconduct which has no place in our society today," said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, in a news conference Thursday.

The two Black men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, say the officers burst into the home they were residing in without a warrant on Jan. 24, beat them, assaulted them with a sex toy and shocked them repeatedly with Tasers over the course of about 90 minutes. One deputy then shot Jenkins in the mouth, the men say.

Clarke described the assault as "torture." She said the officers "sought to dehumanize their victims and to send a message that these two Black men were not welcome 'on their side of the river.'"

The officers are former Rankin County sheriff's deputies Brett McAlpin, 52, Christian Dedmon, 28, Jeffrey Middleton, 46, Hunter Elward, 31, and Daniel Opdyke, 27; and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield, 31, according to the indictment in the Southern District of Mississippi.

"Today’s guilty pleas are historic for justice against rogue police torture and police brutality in Rankin County, the state of Mississippi and all over America," Malik Shabazz, lead attorney for the victims, told USA TODAY. "Significant time behind bars is ahead for all defendants."

Three of the officers − Dedmon, Elward, and Opdyke − also pleaded guilty to using excessive force in a separate incident last year. In the incident, Dedmon beat and tased a white man and fired a gun near his head to coerce a confession while Elward and Opdyke failed to intervene.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch also announced Thursday that her office filed charges in Rankin County Circuit Court against the six officers. The charges included aggravated assault, home invasion, obstruction of justice in the first degree, and conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice.

"This brutal attack caused more than physical harm to these two individual victims; it severed that vital trust with the people," Fitch said in a statement. "This abuse of power will not be tolerated."

Federal indictment details abuse

According to the federal indictment, Parker was staying at the home of a longtime friend − a white woman who lived in a predominantly white neighborhood − to help care for her, and Jenkins was there temporarily.

One of the officers received a complaint that day from one of his white neighbors that some "suspicious" Black men had been staying at the property.

That night, the officer reached out to a group of officers who called themselves "The Goon Squad" and asked if they were "available for a mission," according to the complaint. The group used the name "because of their willingness to use excessive force and not to report it," the complaint said.

The officers burst into the home, handcuffed the men and repeatedly shocked them with Tasers. The group shouted commands at the men, used racial slurs and assaulted the men with a sex toy. One officer "demanded to know where the drugs were" and fired a bullet into a wall, the complaint said.

At one point, the officers "poured milk, alcohol, and chocolate syrup on their faces and into their mouths," the complaint said. One officer also "poured cooking grease" on Parker's head. Another threw eggs at the men.

One officer ordered the men to strip naked and shower off "to wash away evidence of abuse," according to the complaint. The officers then used a wooden kitchen implement, a metal sword, and pieces of wood to beat Parker.

The deputies continued to shock the men with Tasers and stole from the property.

The horrific incident culminated in a "mock execution," when one officer fired a bullet in Jenkins' mouth, lacerating his tongue, breaking his jaw and exiting his neck, the complaint said. The officers then "planted and tampered with evidence to corroborate their false cover story and cover up their misconduct," according to the complaint.

"They left him lying in a pool of blood, gathered on the porch of the house to discuss how to cover it up," Darren LaMarca, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, said at the news conference in Jackson. "What indifference. What disregard for life."

The officers submitted fraudulent drug evidence to the crime lab, filed false reports, charged Jenkins with crimes he did not commit, made false statements to investigators, pressured witnesses to stick to the cover story, planted a gun and destroyed video evidence, shell casings, and Taser cartridges, according to the complaint.

"They became the criminals they swore to protect us from," LaMarca said.

Clarke said the officers' misconduct "was fueled by racial bias and hatred." She reminded Americans of what happened in Mississippi in 1964, when Neshoba County Sheriff’s Deputy Cecil Price arrested three civil rights workers and turned them over to members of the Ku Klux Klan, who murdered them.

"There is still much to be done to root out law enforcement misconduct, especially when that misconduct is motivated in part by the color of the victim’s skin," Clarke said.

Investigation links deputies to other violent episodes

The Justice Department opened an investigation into the incident in Rankin County in February.

An Associated Press investigation in March found several deputies involved with the episode also were linked to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries. Deputies accepted to the sheriff’s office's Special Response Team – a tactical unit whose members receive advanced training – were involved in each of the four encounters.

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey said in June that all the officers involved had been fired or resigned.

Jenkins and Parker filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County that same month, seeking $400 million in damages.

The six officers are expected to plead guilty to the state charges on Aug. 14, officials said. They are scheduled for sentencing on the federal charges on Nov. 14.

Potential sentences on the federal charges vary for each of the officers and include a maximum of a life sentence, LaMarca said.

The federal indictment is the culmination of six months of investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, the FBI, the state of Mississippi, and the Mississippi attorney general’s office, he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mississippi ex-officers plead guilty in torture of 2 Black men