Brian Howey and Nate Rosenfield are examining the power of sheriffs’ offices in Mississippi as part of The Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship.
A federal judge handed down sentences Thursday to a high-ranking Rankin County deputy prosecutors say was the ringleader of the notorious “Goon Squad” and a local police detective associated with the crew for their roles in the torture and sexual assault of two Black men last year.
Judge Tom Lee of US District Court sentenced former Rankin County chief investigator Brett McAlpin to more than 27 years behind bars.
“McAlpin is the one who molded these men into what they became,” federal prosecutor Christopher Perras said during the hearing. “He modeled that behavior for young impressionable officers, and it’s no wonder that they followed his lead.”
Former Richland Police Department detective Joshua Hartfield also received a 10-year sentence Thursday. Hartfield was the only officer who participated in the violent raid who did not work for the sheriff’s department.
The sentencing is the latest chapter in a saga that has rocked the quiet suburban county near Jackson.
A Justice Department investigation found that McAlpin, Hartfield, and former deputies Jeffrey Middleton, Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward and Daniel Opdyke handcuffed, beat and shocked Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker with Tasers during a warrantless raid of Parker’s home in January, 2023.
In a separate incident in December 2022, Dedmon, joined by Elward and Opdyke, shocked Alan Schmidt repeatedly with Tasers before sexually assaulting the man while he was handcuffed.
These incidents were not isolated, prosecutors and the deputies revealed during the hearings this week. In at least nine incidents over the last five years, Perras said McAlpin brutalized people during arrests.
He earned a reputation for training young deputies to mimic his violent tactics, building the Goon Squad from the ground up.
“He didn’t sit at a desk, he beat people. He forced confessions,” Perras said. “If you wanted to advance at the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, you had to be like Brett McAlpin.”
Hartfield received the shortest sentence of all the involved officers. Of the four others, Dedmon received the stiffest sentence, 40 years; Elward, 20 years; and Opdyke and Middleton, each almost 18 years.
Because he was not a known member of the Goon Squad and was less involved in the torture of Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker, Judge Lee said he looked at Hartfield differently and was conflicted about how to sentence him.
“You had no knowledge at the outset of what was planned or likely to occur at the home,” he said. “You were the least involved and the least culpable.”
All of the defendants were ordered to collectively pay $79,000 in restitution to the three victims.
Local activists and attorneys for Jenkins and Parker said the problem is much deeper than just these six officers, and other deputies deserve to be prosecuted for their roles in the abuse.
“This happened over and over again,” attorney Trent Walker said. “It wasn’t the first time they did it, it was the first time they got caught.”
Last year, Mississippi Today and The New York Times exposed a decades-long reign of terror by nearly two dozen Rankin County deputies.
More than 50 people say they witnessed or experienced torture and warrantless raids at the hands of deputies, most of whom have not been charged with a crime.
The Rankin County District Attorney’s Office recently confirmed it is reviewing and dismissing criminal cases involving Goon Squad members, but District Attorney Bubba Bramlett has so far declined to share which cases have been dismissed or how far back in time his review will go.
Several months after the publications released their findings, state lawmakers introduced a bill that would expand oversight over Mississippi law enforcement, allowing the state board that certifies officers to investigate and revoke the licenses of officers accused of misconduct, regardless of whether they are criminally charged.
House Bill 691 passed overwhelmingly in the House and is now before the Senate.
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