5 Mississippi Sheriffs Called ‘The Goon Squad’ Get Up to 45 Year Prison Terms
Five Mississippi Sheriff Deputies calling themselves ‘The Goon Squad’ and a local police officer pleaded guilty to 13 federal felony counts for conspiracy, discharge of a firearm during a crime and obstruction of justice; were sentenced in mid-April to 15 to 45 years in prison for torture and sexual abuse of two cooperative black arrestees.
Criminal misconduct charges against sworn Sherrif Deputies that have jurisdiction over rural, suburban, and urban areas within the county; are required to complete greater training; and are higher paid than local police are rare.
But 5 Rankin all-White Rankin County Deputy Sheriffs Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Daniel Opdyke that gave themselves the title ‘The Goon Squad’, “because of their willingness to use excessive force and not to report it,’ according to the US Department of Justice investigation and charging documents.
On January 24, 2023, Rankin County Sheriff Chief Investigator McAlpin got a call from “one of his white neighbors” in Braxton complaining that several Black males had been staying at the property and engaging in “suspicious behavior.” McAlpin radioed Sheriff Lieutenant Middleton, who messaged that he had “a mission” for The Goon Squad.
The Goon Squad kicked down the doors and found two Black males, Michael Cory Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker. Both men without incident complied with being handcuffed without having been read their rights. The Goon Squad then tasered both retrained subjects.
When Dedmon demanded “to know where the drugs were,” both subjects denied there were any drugs. Dedmon hostilely drew his gun and fired it into the back of the house. The Goon Squad then began making racial slurs to taunt the handcuffed subjects.
Sheriff’s Deputies Opdyke and Dedmon were later charged with finding a dildo in the house that they used to torture the restrained subjects by jamming it in their mouths and threatening to rape them with it. The Goon Squad then “poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup on their faces and into their mouths,’ forcing them to drink it. The Squad then began throwing eggs at the two handcuffed subjects cowering on the ground. The subjects were told to shower and put on other clothes.
Sheriff Lieutenant Middleton and Deputies Opdyke, Dedmon and McAlpin were charged with then beating handcuffed Parker with pieces of wood and a metal sword, before repeatedly tasing both retrained subjects.
Sheriff Deputy Hunter Elwood was charged with conducting a series of “Mock Execution and Shootings” by forcing handcuffed Jenkins onto his knees, sticking the gun into his mouth, and then pulling the trigger.
“The unloaded gun clicked but did not discharge. Elward racked the slide, intending to dry-fire a second time. When Elward put the gun back into [Jenkins’] mouth and pulled the trigger, the gun discharged. The bullet lacerated (Jenkins') tongue, broke his jaw and exited out of his neck.”
With handcuffed Jenkins bleeding out on the floor, The Goon Squad built what federal investigators called “The Cover Story.” The Sheriff Deputies falsely planted and tampered with evidence to make the incident look like a drug raid that turned violent.
Sheriff Chief Investigator McAlpin told the handcuffed Parker and Jenkins that if they “stuck with the cover story” he would “make sure they were released from jail.”
Sheriff Deputy Hartfield then took the victims’ bloody clothes into the woods and tried to burn them. soiled clothes and trying to burn them. Hatfield removed the hard drive from the home surveillance system and threw it in a creek in Florence, Mississippi.
Sheriff Lieutenant Jeffrey Middleton, and Deputies Brett McAlpin and Daniel Opdyke were sentenced to 20 years in prison; Sheriff Deputy Joshua Hartfield was sentenced to 15 years; and Sheriff Deputy Christian Dedmon was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Sheriff Deputy Hunter Elward, who shoved his service revolver in Jenkins mouth in a “mock execution” while the subject was handcuffed and kneeling, was sentenced to 45-years for pulling the trigger with a live round that blew the side of Jenkins face away.
