Former Mississippi Officers Plead Guilty in Attack on Two Black Men

Six white former law-enforcement officers in Mississippi pleaded guilty Thursday to federal civil-rights offenses against two Black men they assaulted during a home raid in January.

The charges were unsealed Thursday after the five former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies and a former Richland Police officer appeared in federal court in Jackson, Miss.

“The defendants in this case tortured and inflicted unspeakable harm on their victims, egregiously violated the civil rights of citizens who they were supposed to protect, and shamefully betrayed the oath they swore as law enforcement officers,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. 

Officers burst into a home without a warrant on Jan. 24 and assaulted the two men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker. The officers held the men down and poured cooking oil, milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup on their faces and in their mouths, authorities said during a news briefing Thursday. The men were struck with objects such as a metal sword, a piece of wood and a wooden kitchen implement, officials said, and were tased several times.

The assault included an incident in which one of the officers placed a gun in Jenkins’s mouth and fired, according to Darren LaMarca, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi. 

The bullet lacerated Jenkins’s tongue, broke his jaw and exited out of his neck, according to the Justice Department. 

“Thank God, he did live,” said LaMarca. 

The officers went to great lengths to cover up the incident, LaMarca said, planting and fabricating evidence, threatening witnesses and lying to investigators. 

The Justice Department began investigating the allegations against the officers in February after Jenkins’s lawyer, Malik Shabazz, wrote a letter to the department outlining the allegations.  

“Today is truly historic for Mississippi and for civil and human rights in America,” Shabazz said after the guilty pleas were announced. 

Jenkins and Parker filed a civil rights lawsuit against Rankin County in June, seeking $400 million in compensatory damages and punitive damages plus interest and costs, according to court documents.

The six former Mississippi law-enforcement officers—Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton, Hunter Elward, Daniel Opdyke and Joshua Hartfield—pleaded guilty to all charges against them. Three also pleaded guilty to charges in an unrelated incident. The 16 total felonies include civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice. 

Jeff Reynolds, a lawyer for Opdyke, said his client “has taken responsibility for his wrongdoing in this case and pled guilty to multiple federal crimes. He admits he was wrong for his part in the horrific harms inflicted upon Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker, the victims, that night last January and is prepared to face the consequences of his actions.”

Vicki Gilliam and Robert Lingold, attorneys for Joshua Hartfield, said Hartfield understands the severity of his actions and inactions. “He awaits his sentence, already in custody, and has left his family and life behind,” they said in a statement. “While he cannot change what he did, he has shown that he is ready to accept consequences.”

Lawyers for the other officers didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Sentencing for all six defendants is scheduled for November.

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey said his department cooperated with the investigation. “The badge worn by so many has been tarnished by the criminal acts of these few individuals,” Bailey said in a statement.

The Richland Police Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Write to Suryatapa Bhattacharya at [email protected]