'Goon Squad' Ex-Deputies Sentenced Over Racist Torture

This story has been updated wth new developments. Two former Mississippi sheriff's deputies were sentenced Tuesday for torturing two Black men in a racist assault. Hunter Elward, 31, was sentenced to just over 20 years in prison for that assault and his role in a separate episode where a white man was sexually assaulted. Jeffrey Middleton, the 46-year-old leader of the so-called "Goon Squad" that abused the men, was given a 17.5-year prison sentence, the AP reports. US District Judge Tom Lee is also due to sentence four other former law enforcement officers who admitted to torturing Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker after a neighbor complained that the men were staying in a home with a white woman.

• Elward and Middleton, along with fellow former Rankin County sheriff's deputies Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon, and Daniel Opdyke, as well as former Richland Police Department officer Joshua Hartfield, pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice related to the incident. Dedmon and Opdyke will be sentenced Wednesday and Hartfield and McAlpin on Thursday. Federal prosecutors are seeking the maximum sentences for the officers.

• Before sentencing, Lee called the men's crimes "egregious and despicable," and said a "sentence at the top of the guidelines range is justified—is more than justified."
• In Jan. 2023, the group of six burst into a Rankin County home without a warrant and assaulted Jenkins and Parker with stun guns, a sex toy, and other objects. Elward admitted to shoving a gun into Jenkins' mouth and firing in a "mock execution" that went awry.

• The group of white deputies, so willing to use excessive force they called themselves the "Goon Squad," mocked the victims with racial slurs. After Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth, they devised a coverup that included planting drugs and a gun. False charges stood against Jenkins and Parker for months. Jenkins suffered a lacerated tongue and broken jaw.
• Both men, who were sitting in the front row, called for the "stiffest of sentences." Their attorney, Malik Shabazz, said they were too traumatized to speak in court, and he read statements on their behalf. "I am hurt. I am broken," Jenkins wrote in his statement. "They tried to take my manhood from me. They did some unimaginable things to me, and the effects will linger for the rest of my life."
• The New York Times reports that Elward wept as he apologized to the victims and their families. "I hate that I was involved in this," he said. Parker stood up and said, "I forgive you." Outside the courthouse, Jenkins said he didn't forgive the former officer. "If he wouldn't have gotten caught, he would still be doing the same thing," he said.
• Elward was also sentenced for his role in an assault that took place weeks before Jenkins and Parker were tortured. For the first time Tuesday, prosecutors identified the victim as Alan Schmidt and read a statement from him detailing what happened to him on Dec. 4, 2022. Schmidt said that during a traffic stop, Rankin County deputies accused him of possessing stolen property. They pulled him from the car and beat him. Then, Dedmon forced him to his knees and tried to insert his genitals into Schmidt's mouth, as Elward watched.

(More Mississippi stories.)