A third ex-deputy sheriff from Mississippi has been punished for being involved in the racist torture of two Black men by a group of white officers. They called themselves “the Goon Squad. ” Daniel Opdyke was given a 17. 5-year prison sentence on Wednesday.
Opdyke, who is 28 years old, cried a lot as he talked in court before the judge said what his punishment would be. He looked at the two people he hurt and said that being in prison has given him a chance to think about how he became a bad person that night.
Opdyke said, “I will feel bad about the things I’ve done every day. ” “I want to make your pain go away. ”
One of the victims, Eddie Terrell Parker, put his head in his hands, closed his eyes, and then got up and left the courtroom before Opdyke finished talking. The other person, Michael Corey Jenkins, said he felt “hurt” and “embarrassed” by the mean things done to him.
United States Judge Tom Lee said Opdyke might not have known everything about what it meant to be in the Goon Squad when Middleton asked him to join, but he did know it meant using too much force. “You did not just watch, you were active. ” Lee said that you were involved in the brutal attack.
All six of the officers admitted that they went into a house without permission and hurt the Black men with a stun gun, a sex toy, and other things. Christian Dedmon, who is 29 years old, was also going to be in prison for a long time when he was sentenced on Wednesday afternoon by Lee.
On Tuesday, Lee sentenced Hunter Elward, 31, to almost 20 years in prison and Jeffrey Middleton, 46, to 17. 5 years in prison. He said their actions were really bad and awful. They, like Opdyke and Dedmon, used to work as deputies for Rankin County sheriff during the attack.
Two other men, Brett McAlpin and Joshua Hartfield, are going to be punished on Thursday for their past roles as a deputy and a police officer.
In March last year, The Associated Press found out that some deputies were involved in at least four violent incidents with Black men since 2019. Two men died and another was seriously hurt. Federal prosecutors announced charges in August.
The ex-cops stayed with their lie about what happened to Michael Corey Jenkins and Parker for a long time, but then they confessed to torturing them. Elward confessed to pushing a gun into Jenkins’ mouth and shooting it during a “play execution” that went wrong.
On Tuesday, the United States said. Attorney General Merrick Garland criticized the terrible attack on citizens that police officers had promised to keep safe.
The frightening thing started in January. On March 24, 2023, a white person in Rankin County complained to McAlpin that two Black men were staying with a white woman at a house in Braxton, and asked for violence against them because of their race. McAlpin told Dedmon to text some white police officers and ask if they could help with something. Dedmon replied and said they should only use force on parts of the body that wouldn’t show in a photo.
Once they got in, they put handcuffs on Jenkins and his friend Parker. They also poured milk, alcohol, and chocolate syrup on their faces. They made them take off their clothes and shower together to hide the mess. They made fun of the victims by using racist words and surprised them by using stun guns. Dedmon and Opdyke attacked them with a sex toy.
Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth, hurting his tongue and breaking his jaw. Then, they lied to cover it up by putting drugs and a gun there. Jenkins and Parker were accused of things they didn’t do for many months.
Rankin County, which is mostly white, is located just east of the state capital, Jackson. It has one of the largest numbers of Black residents compared to other big cities in the U. SA place where lots of people live and work, with buildings and streets. The police told Jenkins and Parker to leave Rankin County and go back to their side of the Pearl River.
Opdyke’s lawyer Jeff Reynolds said on Wednesday that Opdyke was the first to admit what he did. On April 12, he gave investigators a WhatsApp conversation where the officers talked about their plan and what happened. If he had thrown his phone in a river like some other officers did, the investigators might not have found the secret messages.
Reynolds also said that Opdyke was hurt in a sexual way when he was a child and saw the older deputies as father figures. That made him easily influenced by the bad behavior in the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, Reynolds said.
“When a new officer goes there, they start teaching people their beliefs,” Reynolds explained. “Where are the real leaders. Why aren’t they here in this court. ”
On Tuesday, Elward’s lawyer also talked about a “culture of corruption” at the Sheriff’s Office.
Dedmon and Opdyke, along with Elward, are getting punished after admitting to their part in attacking a white man in December. On January 4, 2022, which was a few weeks before Jenkins and Parker were hurt very badly. The victim’s name was revealed by prosecutors on Tuesday. His name is Alan Schmidt. Reynolds said Opdyke kept Schmidt from moving until Dedmon got there, but didn’t hurt him or touch him in a sexual way.
Prosecutors read in court that Schmidt said Dedmon accused him of having stolen stuff when they were stopped by the police that night.
The prosecutors said Elward and Opdyke did not stop Dedmon from hurting the victim. Dedmon punched and kicked the victim, used a Taser on the victim, shot a gun in the air to scare the victim, and then sexually assaulted the victim.
Schmidt said Dedmon made him kneel down, took out his private part, and hit him in the face with it, trying to put it in his mouth. Dedmon then grabbed Schmidt’s private parts and rubbed against his body while he screamed for them to stop, Schmidt said.
Schmidt said, “Who would do something so bad. They already have a lot of power over us, so they must be really sick in the head to behave this way. ”
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who started in 2012 and was elected again in November with no one running against him, did not give any information about why he fired his deputies last June. After they admitted they were guilty in August, Bailey said the officers had acted on their own and promised to improve the department. Jenkins and Parker want him to quit, and they are suing the department for $400 million.