Fourth deputy from Mississippi "Goon Squad" sentenced for multiple incidents of torture
The fourth of six Mississippi former law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to subjecting two Black men to racially motivated torture in January 2023 was sentenced to decades in prison on Wednesday.
Christian Dedmon, a former Rankin County sheriff's deputy, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in torturing Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, and for a separate incident where he led the torture of a White man, Alan Schmidt, in December 2022.
Dedmon, who did not look at Jenkins and Parker as he spoke, apologized and said he'd never forgive himself for the pain he caused.
Earlier Wednesday, Daniel Opdyke, another former deputy, was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Tom Lee in a Jackson federal court for his role in torturing Jenkins and Parker. He faced up to 20 years in prison.
In court on Wednesday, Opdyke cried profusely and apologized to Jenkins and Parker, saying that isolation behind bars has given him time to reflect on "how I transformed into the monster I became that night."
"The weight of my actions and the harm I've caused will haunt me every day," Opdyke said before his sentence was announced. "I wish I could take away your suffering."
Parker rested his head in his hands and closed his eyes, then stood up and left the courtroom before Opdyke finished speaking.
U.S. District Judge Tom Lee said Opdyke may not have been fully aware of what being a member of the Goon Squad entailed when Middleton asked him to join, but he did know it involved using excessive force. "You were not a passive observer, you actively participated in that brutal attack," Lee said.
On Tuesday, two fellow officers were sentenced to years in prison. Former sheriff's deputy Hunter Elward received just over a 20-year sentence, while Jeffrey Middleton, another former deputy and the leader of the "Goon Squad" that abused the two men, was handed a 17.5-year prison sentence.
Two remaining officers, former deputy Brett McAlpin and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield, are scheduled to be sentenced by Lee on Thursday.
In the December incident, Dedmon was one of several Rankin County deputies who pulled over a man identified in court Tuesday as Alan Schmidt. Schmidt was handcuffed, pulled from his vehicle and beaten. Dedmon then fired his gun into the air, forced Schmidt to his knees, and attempted to sexually assault him. Elward, one of the deputies sentenced Tuesday, was present at the time.
During the January 2023 incident, the six officers tortured Jenkins and Parker. The incident began on Jan. 24, 2023, with a racist call for extrajudicial violence. A White person phoned Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two Black men were staying with a White woman at a house in Braxton, Mississippi. McAlpin told Dedmon, who texted a group of White deputies so willing to use excessive force they called themselves "The Goon Squad."
Once inside, they handcuffed Jenkins and his friend Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces. They forced them to strip naked and shower together to conceal the mess. They mocked the victims with racial slurs and shocked them with stun guns. Dedmon assaulted them with a sex toy.
After Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth, they devised a coverup that included planting drugs and a gun. False charges stood against Jenkins and Parker for months. Jenkins suffered a lacerated tongue and broken jaw.
In a statement Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland condemned the "heinous attack on citizens they had sworn an oath to protect."
The majority-white Rankin County is just east of the state capital, Jackson, home to one of the highest percentages of Black residents of any major U.S. city.
The officers warned Jenkins and Parker to "stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or 'their side' of the Pearl River," court documents say, referencing an area with higher concentrations of Black residents.
Last March, months before federal prosecutors announced charges in August, an investigation by The Associated Press linked some of the deputies to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.
For months, Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, whose deputies committed the crimes, said little about the episode. After the officers pleaded guilty in August, Bailey said the officers had gone rogue and promised to change the department. Jenkins and Parker have called for his resignation, and they have filed a $400 million civil lawsuit against the department.
