2 more former Mississippi officers sentenced for torture of 2 Black men

A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a third and a fourth former Mississippi law enforcement officer for their roles in a racist attack on two Black men perpetrated by six white officers who called themselves the “Goon Squad.”

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U.S. District Judge Tom Lee sentenced Daniel Ready Opdyke, 28, to 17.5 years in federal prison, The Associated Press reported. Later Wednesday, Lee handed down a 40-year sentence for Christian Lee Dedmon, 29, according to the news agency.

4th officer sentenced to 40 years

Update 4 p.m. EDT March 20: Dedmon, a former narcotics investigator with the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for his role in torturing Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker in January 2023.

In court, Dedmon apologized and said he’d never forgive himself for the pain he had caused, the AP reported. He did not look at Jenkins or Parker.

In a statement read by his lawyer, Jenkins said that Dedmon’s actions were the most depraved of the officers who participated in the attack.

“Deputy Dedmon is the worst example of a police officer in the United States,” he said, according to the AP. “Deputy Dedmon was the most aggressive, sickest and the most wicked.”

Prosecutors said Dedmon used a stun gun on a handcuffed Jenkins multiple times and assaulted both him and Parker with a sex toy. He also poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup on them, forcing them to drink some, before he poured cooking crease on Parker’s head. Dedmon also hit Parker with a piece of wood and at one point discharged a “warning shot” that went into a wall.

His sentence came down after Lee sentenced Opdyke and former RCSO Lt. Jeffrey Arwood Middleton — described as the leader of the Goon Squad —to 17.5 years each for their parts in the attack. On Tuesday, former RSCO patrol Deputy Hunter Thomas Elward was also sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Former RCSO chief investigator Brett Morris McAlpin and Richmond police narcotics investigator Joshua Allen Hartfield are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.

Original report: Before his sentence was read, Opdyke sobbed as he addressed the court, saying that his time in isolation behind bars gave him the chance to reflect on how he turned into “the monster I became that night.”

“The weight of my actions and the harm I’ve caused will haunt me every day,” he said, according to the AP. “I wish I could take away your suffering.”

Earlier, an attorney for Jenkins and Parker called for the “stiffest of sentences” against the officers, saying that they “continue to suffer emotionally and physically since this horrific and bloody attack by Rankin County deputies,” the AP reported.

“It’s been very hard for me, for us,” Jenkins said at a news conference. “We are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.”

Opdyke was a patrol deputy with the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office when he and five other officers responded to a neighbor’s complaint about Black men staying at a home in Braxton, Mississippi, on Jan. 24, 2023, court records show. They burst into the home without a warrant and tortured Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker with stun guns, a sex toy and other objects, WJTV reported.

During the attack, the six white officers used racial slurs and warned the men “to stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or to ‘their side’ of the Pearl River -- areas with higher concentrations of Black residents,” according to court records. They handcuffed the victims, doused them with milk, alcohol and syrup and threw eggs at them before forcing them to shower to hide evidence of the attack.

One officer, RSCO patrol Deputy Hunter Thomas Elward, admitted to putting his gun in Jenkins’ mouth twice and pulling the trigger in what was supposed to be a pair of mock executions. However, the second time he pulled the trigger, a bullet fired, lacerating Jenkins’ tongue and breaking his jaw.

As Jenkins was bleeding on the floor, the officers huddled up to agree on a cover story for the incident. They then planted and tampered with evidence to corroborate their story, officials said. For months, Jenkins and Parker faced false drug-related charges as part of the scheme.

The officers involved in the attack — five members of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office and one member of the Richland Police Department — were part of a group that called itself the Goon Squad, WJTV reported. Court records show the name indicated “their willingness to use excessive force and not to report it.”

On Tuesday, Lee sentenced Elward and RCSO Lt. Jeffrey Arwood Middleton — identified as the leader of the Goon Squad — for their roles in the attack. Elward received a 20-year sentence while Middleton was sentenced to 17.5 years.

In a statement issued Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed to “hold accountable officers who violate constitutional rights, and in so doing, betray the public trust.”

“The defendants will spent 20 and 17.5 years in prison for their heinous attack on citizens they had sworn an oath the protect,” the attorney general said.

Christian Lee Dedmon, who was a narcotics investigator with RCSO, is set to be sentenced later Wednesday. Former RCSO chief investigator Brett Morris McAlpin and Richmond police narcotics investigator Joshua Allen Hartfield are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.

Opdyke, Elward and Dedmon are also being sentenced after pleading guilty to their roles in an attack on a white man weeks before they participated in the torture of Jenkins and Parker, the AP reported.

The victim in that case, identified as Alan Schmidt, was accused of possessing stolen property during a traffic stop, according to the news agency. He was handcuffed and pulled from his vehicle before Dedmon beat him, used a stun gun on him and sexually assaulted him, prosecutors said.

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