Final ex-Mississippi 'Goon Squad' officer sentenced to 10 years in torture of 2 Black men

N'dea Yancey-Bragg and Pam Dankins, USA TODAY
·4 min read
15

JACKSON, Miss. – The final former Mississippi law enforcement officer who pleaded guilty to torturing two Black men was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison.

U.S. District Court Judge Tom Lee sentenced former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield after five minutes of deliberating outside the courtroom. Hartfield's sentencing comes after Lee earlier Thursday handed former Rankin County sheriff's deputy Brett McAlpin, the chief investigator and highest-ranking deputy at the scene, a sentence of more than 27 years.

McAlpin, Hartfield and four other former officers pleaded guilty to more than a dozen federal charges after Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker accused them of bursting into a home without a warrant, calling them racial slurs, beating them, assaulting them with a sex toy, and shooting Jenkins in the mouth in January 2023. Hartfield was one of the officers that used a stun gun on the men repeatedly, and McAlpin struck Parker with a piece of wood and stole from the property, according to the federal indictment.

After the attack, which Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, described as "torture,” the former officers concocted a cover story and fabricated evidence to hide their crimes. Hartfield helped discard evidence, and McAlpin pressured Parker and the other officers to go along with the false story, the indictment said.

This combination of file photos shows, from top left, former Rankin County sheriff's deputies Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, Daniel Opdyke and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield appearing at the Rankin County Circuit Court in Brandon, Miss., Monday, Aug. 14, 2023. The Mississippi sheriff who leads the department where former deputies pleaded guilty to a long list of state and federal charges for the racist torture of two Black men has asked a federal court to dismiss a civil lawsuit against him, Friday, Oct. 6, 2023.

Lee said he was "conflicted" on whether to impose a sentence at the top of the guidelines of 151 months for Hartfield. After taking into consideration all of the facts and character letters he has received, he said he looks at Hartfield "in a different light."

"You've acknowledged and admitted you participated," Lee said, calling Hartfield "the least involved and least culpable."

"You don't have a history or demonstrated history of excessive force, and you seemed to have landed in something you didn't anticipate," Lee added. "But you didn't just fail to intervene, you actively participated, and for that, you deserve to be punished."

Other officers sentenced

Christian Dedmon received the longest prison term out of the ex-"Goon Squad" officers on Wednesday. Dedmon, who devised the scheme to cover up the involved officers' misconduct, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.

Also Wednesday, Lee sentenced Daniel Opdyke to 17½ years in prison. Opdyke assaulted the men with a sex toy during the attack, struck Parker with a wooden kitchen implement and helped get rid of evidence, according to the indictment.

Hunter Elward who shot Jenkins, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in an emotional hearing Tuesday morning. Shortly after, Jeffrey Middleton, described as the group's ringleader, was sentenced to 17½ years in prison.

Parker, who spoke for the first time in court Wednesday, said when he saw the officers walk through the door, he saw “the devil.”

“I knew what it was when I saw them walk through the door but that night, I saw the devil come to me, in my face, in my home, where I was supposed to be safe. I was there helping a friend who was paralyzed,” Parker said. “But you know, when you do good that’s when the devil comes. Maybe I was doing too good.”

Jenkins, said the incident will be “forever engraved” in his mind and heart in a statement read Wednesday by his lawyer, Malik Shabazz.

“Every time I try to take a bite of food, the pain reminds me of what happened that night," the statement said. "I want all of them to remain behind bars and to be off the streets.”

What's next?

The six former officers also pleaded guilty to state charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and hinder prosecution and are awaiting sentencing, according to a news release from the office of Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch.

Dedmon and Elward pleaded guilty to additional charges of home invasion, the release said. Elward pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and McAlpin, Middleton, Opdyke and Hartfield pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and hindering prosecution.

The former officers agreed to sentences recommended by prosecutors ranging from five to 30 years, and the time served for convictions at the state level will run concurrently with their federal sentences, The Associated Press reported.

Jenkins and Parker have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking $400 million in damages. Shabazz and the NAACP have also called for Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey's resignation and called on the Justice Department to launch a pattern or practice investigation into Rankin County, similar to the investigation recently opened in Lexington, Mississippi.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mississippi 'Goon Squad' case: Last officer sentenced to 10 years