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Justice Department opens civil rights probe into Mississippi sheriff’s office after torture of 2 Black men

By The Associated Press Sep 19, 2024 | 3:24 PM

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into a Mississippi sheriff’s department whose officers tortured two Black men in a racist attack that included beatings, repeated use of stun guns and assaults with a sex toy before one of the victims was shot in the mouth, officials said Thursday.

The Justice Department will investigate whether the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department has engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force and unlawful stops, searches and arrests, and whether it has used racially discriminatory policing practices, according to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke.

Five Rankin sheriff’s deputies pleaded guilty in 2023 to breaking into a home without a warrant and engaging in an hourslong attack on Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker. A sixth officer, from the Richland Police Department, was also convicted in the attack

Some of the officers were part of a group so willing to use excessive force they called themselves the Goon Squad. All six were sentenced in March, receiving terms of 10 to 40 years.

The charges followed an Associated Press investigation in March 2023 that linked some of the officers to at least four violent encounters since 2019 that left two Black men dead.

FILE - This combination of photos shows, from top left, former Rankin County sheriff's deputies Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, Daniel Opdyke and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield appearing at the Rankin County Circuit Court in Brandon, Miss., Aug. 14, 2023. Two Black men who were tortured for hours by the six Mississippi law enforcement officers in 2023 called Monday, March 18, 2024, for a federal judge to impose the strictest possible penalties at their sentencings this week. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
FILE – This combination of photos shows, from top left, former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, Daniel Opdyke and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield appearing at the Rankin County Circuit Court in Brandon, Miss., Aug. 14, 2023. Two Black men who were tortured for hours by the six Mississippi law enforcement officers in 2023 called Monday, March 18, 2024, for a federal judge to impose the strictest possible penalties at their sentencings this week. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

“The concerns about the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department did not end with the demise of the Goon Squad,” Clarke said Thursday, adding that the Justice Department has received information about other troubling incidents.

The attacks on Jenkins and Parker began on Jan. 24, 2023, with a racist call for extrajudicial violence, according to federal prosecutors. A white person phoned Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two Black men were staying with a white woman at a house in Braxton.

Once inside the home, the officers handcuffed Jenkins and Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces while mocking them with racial slurs. They forced them to strip naked and shower together to conceal the mess. They mocked the victims with racial slurs and assaulted them with sex objects.

Locals saw in the grisly details of the case echoes of Mississippi’s history of racist atrocities by people in authority. The difference this time is that those who abused their power paid a steep price for their crimes, attorneys for the victims have said.

In addition to McAlpin, the others convicted were former deputies Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Jeffrey Middleton, Daniel Opdyke and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield.

U.S. District Judge Tom Lee called the former officers’ actions “egregious and despicable” and imposed sentences near the top of federal guidelines to five of the six.

“The depravity of the crimes committed by these defendants cannot be overstated,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said after the sentencing.

The Rankin County Sheriff’s Office released a statement about the investigation.

“The Department of Justice announced today that it is beginning an investigation into various policing practices at the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department.  We have increased our agency’s transparency by placing our policies and procedures, in addition to our compliments and complaints portal, on the Sheriff’s Department website. We will continue this transparency and will fully cooperate with all aspects of this investigation, while also welcoming DOJ’s input into our updated policies and practices,” officials with the sheriff’s office said.