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Rankin ‘Goon Squad’ of law officers admit to hindering prosecution in torture case

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Six white former law enforcement officers pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution in their torturing of two Black men as part of a “Goon Squad” operation aimed at getting African Americans to “go back” to the predominantly Black city of Jackson.

“To my knowledge,” said Trent Walker, the attorney for the two men, “never in the history of Mississippi have, in particular, white officers been held to account for brutality against Black victims.”

On the evening of Jan. 24, five Rankin County deputies and a Richland police officer beat and tortured the handcuffed Black men, Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins, hurled racial slurs at them, accused them of “taking advantage” of the white female homeowner and warned them to stay out of Rankin County.

On Monday, Parker and Jenkins sat in a Rankin County courthouse and watched as the former law enforcement officers pleaded guilty. Afterward, Parker said, “I hope this is a lesson to everybody out there. Justice will be served.” 

Michael Jenkins was in Rankin County Circuit Court, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, to hear the guilty pleas of the officers accused of beating and torturing them in January. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

They included former patrol deputy Hunter Elward, who shot Jenkins in the mouth, Brett McAlpin, who served as chief investigator for the sheriff’s office, Lt. Jeffrey Middleton, who supervised the “Goon Squad” shift, Christian Dedmon, who served as a narcotics investigator, Daniel Opdyke, who served as a patrol deputy, Josh Hartfield, who served as narcotics investigator for Richland Police Department.

Front and back of coin the member of the Rankin County “Goon Squad” of law enforcement officers carried.

Prosecution recommendations included these sentences: Elward, 15 years in prison; Dedmon, 10 years; McAlpin and Middleton, eight years; Opdyke and Hartfield, five years. No date has been set for their sentencings.

The officers previously pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges related to the beating, torture, unwarranted search and coverup. Sentencing hearings are set for mid-November.

On the evening of Jan. 24, a white neighbor informed McAlpin that “several Black males” were living in the home of a white woman in the neighborhood. According to the criminal information, the neighbor claimed he had seen “suspicious behavior” in the home.

McAplin ordered Dedmon to investigate. Dedmon texted fellow members of the Goon Squad, nicknamed because of the group’s willingness to beat people up during arrests.

Former Rankin County law enforcement officer Brett McAlpin, enters Rankin County Circuit Court where he pled guilty to all charges before Judge Steve Ratcliff, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023 in Brandon. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

“Are y’all available for a mission?” Dedmon texted, warning the officers that they might have to “work easy”— knocking on the men’s door instead of kicking it down — because the home was equipped with security cameras. Patrol deputy Daniel Opdyke texted back a gif of a baby crying.

Dedmon texted “no bad mugshots” signaling that they should beat the men on parts of their body that wouldn’t show up in a mugshot, according to the criminal information.

Officers crept onto the property, surrounding the doors at the side and the back of the house, which lacked security cameras. Then, without a warrant, they kicked the doors down.

The officers shouted orders that the two men complied with, according to the criminal information. Dedmon handcuffed them and — without seeing any evidence of a crime — began to tase them repeatedly. Opdyke kicked Parker in the ribs.

Former Rankin County law enforcement officer Joshua Hartfield, enters Rankin County Circuit Court, where he pled guilty to all charges before Judge Steve Ratcliff, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023 in Brandon. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Officer Dedmon asked the men where their drugs were. When Parker and Jenkins replied that they didn’t have drugs, Dedmon shot a bullet into the wall, demanding that they confess.

The officers accused the two men of taking advantage of the white woman who owned the home, according to the criminal information, calling them “n—–,” “monkey” and “boy.”

Former Rankin County law enforcement officer Daniel Opdyke, enters Rankin County Circuit Court, where he pled guilty to all charges before Judge Steve Ratcliff, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023 in Brandon. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

When the officers searched the home, Opdyke found a dildo in one of the bedrooms, which he gave to Dedmon, who used it to slap the men. Dedmon stuck the sex toy in their mouths and turned Jenkins on his back threatening to anally rape him with it. Dedmon only stopped when he noticed Jenkins had defecated on himself.

Dedmon then began to taunt the men, pouring milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup onto their faces and into their mouths. He poured cooking grease on Parker’s head, while Elward threw eggs at the men.

Jenkins and Parker were forced to strip naked, shower and change their clothes to destroy evidence of the abuse.

Then the two men were beaten with objects around the home — a piece of wood, a kitchen utensil, a metal sword — and tased repeatedly.

McAlpin and Lt. Jeffrey Middleton, who supervised the Goon Squad, stole two rubber bar mats from the home and were about to take a Class A military uniform, when they heard shots ring out, according to the federal criminal information.

The first shot was fired by Dedmon into the yard. The second was fired by Elward, who meant to perform a mock execution, secretly removing a bullet from the chamber of his service pistol before “dry firing” into Jenkin’s mouth. He tried to repeat the intimidation tactic, but this time the weapon fired, tearing a bullet through Jenkin’s tongue and jaw. 

Former Rankin County law enforcement officer Jeffrey Middleton enters Rankin County Circuit Court, where he pled guilty to all charges before Judge Steve Ratcliff, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023 in Brandon. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Without providing medical attention to Jenkins, who was bleeding on the floor, the officers devised an elaborate cover up. Middleton planted a “throw down” gun he kept in his car in the home, and Dedmon took meth from a previous drug bust, which he neglected to enter into evidence, and later submitted it to the crime, stating that it belonged to Jenkins.

The officers disposed of any shell casings they could find and threw the men’s clothes into the woods behind the house. They stole the hard drive from the home’s surveillance system and later threw it in a creek in Florence. McAlpin and Middleton, the two highest ranking officers, threatened to kill the other deputies if they said a word, according to court records.

Jenkins was taken to the hospital and received life-saving surgeries. He was charged with disorderly conduct, assaulting an officer and drug possession. Parker was taken to jail and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and disorderly conduct. All charges were later dismissed.

Former Rankin County law enforcement officer Hunter Elward, enters Rankin County Circuit Court, where he pled guilty to all charges before Judge Steve Ratcliff, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023 in Brandon. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Elward signed an affidavit, claiming Jenkins had shot at him and the other officers filed false police reports and lied to investigators from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to back up Elward’s claims.

Under their federal convictions, Dedmon and Elward each face up to 120 years in prison, plus a life sentence. Opdyke faces up to 100 years; McAlpin, up to 90 years; Hartfield and Middleton, up to 80 years each.

Seth W. Stoughton, law enforcement expert and professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, called the acts “reminiscent of the most blatant racist abuses by police in the Jim Crow and Civil Rights era. This was a lynch mob of officers, pure and simple.”

The environment enabled the Goon Squad to operate, he said. “An investigator knew exactly who to call, and they knew exactly how to communicate to do something like this,” he said. “That’s not spontaneous, it’s the result of the tacit or explicit approval of the supervisors and agency.”

But Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who arrived at the scene an hour and a half after the officers were first dispatched, told reporters that the deputies lied to him.

“I am sick to my stomach,” he told reporters. “I have tried to build a reputation, tried to have a safe county. They have robbed me of all of this.”

Jenkins’ mother, Mary, said the officers “feel comfortable telling the same lie over and over again.”

UPDATE 8/14,2023: This story has been updated to include additional comments.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Early voting proposal killed on last day of Mississippi legislative session

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-03 13:02:00

Mississippi will remain one of only three states without no-excuse early voting or no-excuse absentee voting. 

Senate leaders, on the last day of their regular 2025 session, decided not to send a bill to Gov. Tate Reeves that would have expanded pre-Election Day voting options. The governor has been vocally opposed to early voting in Mississippi, and would likely have vetoed the measure.

The House and Senate this week overwhelmingly voted for legislation that established a watered-down version of early voting. The proposal would have required voters to go to a circuit clerk’s office and verify their identity with a photo ID. 

The proposal also listed broad excuses that would have allowed many voters an opportunity to cast early ballots. 

The measure passed the House unanimously and the Senate approved it 42-7. However, Sen. Jeff Tate, a Republican from Meridian who strongly opposes early voting, held the bill on a procedural motion. 

Senate Elections Chairman Jeremy England chose not to dispose of Tate’s motion on Thursday morning, the last day the Senate was in session. This killed the bill and prevented it from going to the governor. 

England, a Republican from Vancleave, told reporters he decided to kill the legislation because he believed some of its language needed tweaking. 

The other reality is that Republican Gov. Tate Reeves strongly opposes early voting proposals and even attacked England on social media for advancing the proposal out of the Senate chamber. 

England said he received word “through some sources” that Reeves would veto the measure.

“I’m not done working on it, though,” England said. 

Although Mississippi does not have no-excuse early voting or no-excuse absentee voting, it does have absentee voting. 

To vote by absentee, a voter must meet one of around a dozen legal excuses, such as temporarily living outside of their county or being over 65. Mississippi law doesn’t allow people to vote by absentee purely out of convenience or choice. 

Several conservative states, such as Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida, have an in-person early voting system. The Republican National Committee in 2023 urged Republican voters to cast an early ballot in states that have early voting procedures. 

Yet some Republican leaders in Mississippi have ardently opposed early voting legislation over concerns that it undermines election security. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Legislature approves DEI ban after heated debate

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-02 16:34:00

Mississippi lawmakers have reached an agreement to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs and a list of “divisive concepts” from public schools across the state education system, following the lead of numerous other Republican-controlled states and President Donald Trump’s administration.  

House and Senate lawmakers approved a compromise bill in votes on Tuesday and Wednesday. It will likely head to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves for his signature after it clears a procedural motion.

The agreement between the Republican-dominated chambers followed hours of heated debate in which Democrats, almost all of whom are Black, excoriated the legislation as a setback in the long struggle to make Mississippi a fairer place for minorities. They also said the bill could bog universities down with costly legal fights and erode academic freedom.

Democratic Rep. Bryant Clark, who seldom addresses the entire House chamber from the podium during debates, rose to speak out against the bill on Tuesday. He is the son of the late Robert Clark, the first Black Mississippian elected to the state Legislature since the 1800s and the first Black Mississippian to serve as speaker pro tempore and preside over the House chamber since Reconstruction.

“We are better than this, and all of you know that we don’t need this with Mississippi history,” Clark said. “We should be the ones that say, ‘listen, we may be from Mississippi, we may have a dark past, but you know what, we’re going to be the first to stand up this time and say there is nothing wrong with DEI.'”

Legislative Republicans argued that the measure — which will apply to all public schools from the K-12 level through universities — will elevate merit in education and remove a list of so-called “divisive concepts” from academic settings. More broadly, conservative critics of DEI say the programs divide people into categories of victims and oppressors and infuse left-wing ideology into campus life.

“We are a diverse state. Nowhere in here are we trying to wipe that out,” said Republican Sen. Tyler McCaughn, one of the bill’s authors. “We’re just trying to change the focus back to that of excellence.”

The House and Senate initially passed proposals that differed in who they would impact, what activities they would regulate and how they aim to reshape the inner workings of the state’s education system. Some House leaders wanted the bill to be “semi-vague” in its language and wanted to create a process for withholding state funds based on complaints that almost anyone could lodge. The Senate wanted to pair a DEI ban with a task force to study inefficiencies in the higher education system, a provision the upper chamber later agreed to scrap.

The concepts that will be rooted out from curricula include the idea that gender identity can be a “subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality.” The move reflects another effort to align with the Trump administration, which has declared via executive order that there are only two sexes.

The House and Senate disagreed on how to enforce the measure but ultimately settled on an agreement that would empower students, parents of minor students, faculty members and contractors to sue schools for violating the law.

People could only sue after they go through an internal campus review process and a 25-day period when schools could fix the alleged violation. Republican Rep. Joey Hood, one of the House negotiators, said that was a compromise between the chambers. The House wanted to make it possible for almost anyone to file lawsuits over the DEI ban, while Senate negotiators initially bristled at the idea of fast-tracking internal campus disputes to the legal system.   

The House ultimately held firm in its position to create a private cause of action, or the right to sue, but it agreed to give schools the ability to conduct an investigative process and potentially resolve the alleged violation before letting people sue in chancery courts.

“You have to go through the administrative process,” said Republican Sen. Nicole Boyd, one of the bill’s lead authors. “Because the whole idea is that, if there is a violation, the school needs to cure the violation. That’s what the purpose is. It’s not to create litigation, it’s to cure violations.” 

If people disagree with the findings from that process, they could also ask the attorney general’s office to sue on their behalf.

Under the new law, Mississippi could withhold state funds from schools that don’t comply. Schools would be required to compile reports on all complaints filed in response to the new law.

Trump promised in his 2024 campaign to eliminate DEI in the federal government. One of the first executive orders he signed did that. Some Mississippi lawmakers introduced bills in the 2024 session to restrict DEI, but the proposals never made it out of committee. With the national headwinds at their backs and several other laws in Republican-led states to use as models, Mississippi lawmakers made plans to introduce anti-DEI legislation.

The policy debate also unfolded amid the early stages of a potential Republican primary matchup in the 2027 governor’s race between State Auditor Shad White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. White, who has been one of the state’s loudest advocates for banning DEI, had branded Hosemann in the months before the 2025 session “DEI Delbert,” claiming the Senate leader has stood in the way of DEI restrictions passing the Legislature. 

During the first Senate floor debate over the chamber’s DEI legislation during this year’s legislative session, Hosemann seemed to be conscious of these political attacks. He walked over to staff members and asked how many people were watching the debate live on YouTube. 

As the DEI debate cleared one of its final hurdles Wednesday afternoon, the House and Senate remained at loggerheads over the state budget amid Republican infighting. It appeared likely the Legislature would end its session Wednesday or Thursday without passing a $7 billion budget to fund state agencies, potentially threatening a government shutdown.

“It is my understanding that we don’t have a budget and will likely leave here without a budget. But this piece of legislation …which I don’t think remedies any of Mississippi’s issues, this has become one of the top priorities that we had to get done,” said Democratic Sen. Rod Hickman. “I just want to say, if we put that much work into everything else we did, Mississippi might be a much better place.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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House gives Senate 5 p.m. deadline to come to table, or legislative session ends with no state budget

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-02 16:13:00

The House on Wednesday attempted one final time to revive negotiations between it and the Senate over passing a state budget.

Otherwise, the two Republican-led chambers will likely end their session without funding government services for the next fiscal year and potentially jeopardize state agencies.

The House on Wednesday unanimously passed a measure to extend the legislative session and revive budget bills that had died on legislative deadlines last weekend. 

House Speaker Jason White said he did not have any prior commitment that the Senate would agree to the proposal, but he wanted to extend one last offer to pass the budget. White, a Republican from West, said if he did not hear from the Senate by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, his chamber would end its regular session. 

“The ball is in their court,” White said of the Senate. “Every indication has been that they would not agree to extend the deadlines for purposes of doing the budget. I don’t know why that is. We did it last year, and we’ve done it most years.” 

But it did not appear likely Wednesday afternoon that the Senate would comply.

The Mississippi Legislature has not left Jackson without setting at least most of the state budget since 2009, when then Gov. Haley Barbour had to force them back to set one to avoid a government shutdown.

The House measure to extend the session is now before the Senate for consideration. To pass, it would require a two-thirds majority vote of senators. But that might prove impossible. Numerous senators on both sides of the aisle vowed to vote against extending the current session, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann who oversees the chamber said such an extension likely couldn’t pass. 

Senate leadership seemed surprised at the news that the House passed the resolution to negotiate a budget, and several senators earlier on Wednesday made passing references to ending the session without passing a budget. 

“We’ll look at it after it passes the full House,” Senate President Pro Tempore Dean Kirby said. 

The House and Senate, each having a Republican supermajority, have fought over many issues since the legislative session began early January.

But the battle over a tax overhaul plan, including elimination of the state individual income tax, appeared to cause a major rift. Lawmakers did pass a tax overhaul, which the governor has signed into law, but Senate leaders cried foul over how it passed, with the House seizing on typos in the Senate’s proposal that accidentally resembled the House’s more aggressive elimination plan.

The Senate had urged caution in eliminating the income tax, and had economic growth triggers that would have likely phased in the elimination over many years. But the typos essentially negated the triggers, and the House and governor ran with it.

The two chambers have also recently fought over the budget. White said he communicated directly with Senate leaders that the House would stand firm on not passing a budget late in the session. 

But Senate leaders said they had trouble getting the House to meet with them to haggle out the final budget. 

On the normally scheduled “conference weekend” with a deadline to agree to a budget last Saturday, the House did not show, taking the weekend off. This angered Hosemann and the Senate. All the budget bills died, requiring a vote to extend the session, or the governor forcing them into a special session.

If the Legislature ends its regular session without adopting a budget, the only option to fund state agencies before their budgets expire on June 30 is for Gov. Tate Reeves to call lawmakers back into a special session later. 

“There really isn’t any other option (than the governor calling a special session),” Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann previously said. 

If Reeves calls a special session, he gets to set the Legislature’s agenda. A special session call gives an otherwise constitutionally weak Mississippi governor more power over the Legislature. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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