Two former Mississippi sheriff’s deputies who were members of a self-described “Goon Squad” were sentenced to federal prison Wednesday after admitting they tortured and abused two Black men in a racist attack that left one of the victims seriously injured.
Daniel Ready Opdyke, a former deputy with the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison.
And former deputy Christian Lee Dedmon was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Both men, along with four other law enforcement officers, pleaded guilty last year to felony charges that included 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.
The charges stemmed from an interaction with Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker in January 2023, when the group of six officers burst into their Rankin County home without a warrant and assaulted them with stun guns, forced them to ingest liquids, punched and kicked them, and called them racial slurs.
Dedmon fired his gun twice during the incident in an attempt to intimidate the victims, the Department of Justice said in a 2023 news release.
Parker, via a statement read by his lawyer, told the court that he was “severely impacted” by what happened and it “left a scar that will last forever.”
“I don’t know if I will ever sleep again at night,” Parker said in his statement. “I am in therapy now and in the future. My mind is all messed up and my emotions are all over the map.”
The incident took place on Jan. 24, 2023, when a white person called Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that Jenkins and Parker were staying with a white woman at a house in Braxton, Mississippi, according to The Associated Press.
McAlpin told Dedmon, who texted a group of white deputies who called themselves “The Goon Squad.” The Justice Department said members “were known for using excessive force and not reporting it.”
The group handcuffed…
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