Six former police officers in Mississippi have pleaded guilty on Monday to all state charges against them related to the torture and abuse of two Black men in January, and the subsequent cover-up.
Michael Corey Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker said deputies burst inside a home without a warrant and subjected them to 90 minutes of abuse. The men said deputies stripped the two naked, forced them to take a shower together, and attempted to use a sex toy on them during an hourslong interrogation.
The former officers then attempted a cover up by planting a gun and drugs.
The officers’ story unraveled when one admitted to the sheriff that he lied, leading to the confessions of the others.
Jenkins and Parker were targeted because a white neighbor complained that two Black men were staying at the home with a white woman, court documents show.
- According to the Mississippi Attorney General’s office, former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, along with ex-police officer Joshua Hartfield, were each charged with conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice.
- Dedmon was also charged with home invasion and Elward was also charged with home invasion and aggravated assault, after he placed his gun inside the mouth of Jenkins and pulled the trigger.
- Each of the former officers agreed to sentences recommended by state prosecutors ranging from five to 30 years, although the judge isn’t bound by that. Time served for the state charges will run concurrently with federal sentences they are scheduled to receive. Each could get longer prison sentences in federal court in November.
Some of the officers called themselves the “Goon Squad” because of their willingness to use excessive force and cover it up, including the attack that ended with a deputy shooting one victim in the mouth.