Former Noxubee County Sheriff Terry Grassaree plans to plead guilty in the federal case where a woman alleges he demanded she take sexually explicit photographs and videos of herself in jail — and then share them with him.
The Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today and The New York Times highlighted Grassaree in its series, “Unfettered Power: Mississippi Sheriffs,” which showed how sheriffs can rule like kings in rural counties. They answer to no one and typically face little press or prosecutorial scrutiny.
In a 2020 lawsuit, Elizabeth Layne Reed accused two deputies, Vance Phillips and Damon Clark, of coercing her into having sex. She said the men gave her a cellphone and other perks in exchange for sexual encounters inside and outside the jail. Deputies even put a sofa in her cell.
According to her lawsuit, Grassaree knew all about his deputies’ “sexual contacts and shenanigans,” but the sheriff did nothing to “stop the coerced sexual relationships.”
In response, Grassaree has previously denied any knowledge of what his deputies were doing. “Are you a boss?” he asked. “Do your employees tell you everything they do?”
Instead of intervening, the lawsuit alleged, the sheriff “sexted” her and demanded that she use the phone the deputies had given her to send him “a continuous stream of explicit videos, photographs and texts” while she was in jail. She also alleged in the lawsuit that Grassaree touched her in a “sexual manner.”
The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount.
The original federal indictment accused Grassaree of using his cellphone to facilitate a bribe, which experts say could have been the perks the woman says she received.
One of those deputies, Phillips, pleaded guilty last year to bribery. Prosecutors asked for his sentencing to be postponed “pending a resolution of another criminal matter,” an obvious reference to Grassaree’s case.
The judge granted the request, and no date has been set yet for Phillips’ sentencing.
The other deputy, Vance, wasn’t charged. “I never coerced Reed into sex,” he wrote in his response to the lawsuit, but he never answered whether he had sex with her.
Under Mississippi law, it is a crime for officers to have sex with those behind bars, and the felony carries up to five years in prison.
The superseding indictment accuses Grassaree of lying to the FBI, destroying evidence and wire fraud.
In this 2000 photo, Noxubee County Deputy Terry Grassaree kneels on the neck of Teronto Calhoun, a 20-year-old he arrested for resisting arrest. Credit: Scott Boyd/The Macon Beacon
According to a document filed by his attorney in U.S. District Court, Grassaree plans to plead guilty to charges, but does not specify which ones. If he pleaded guilty to all of them, he could face up to 90 years in prison.
Nearly two decades ago, Grassaree faced allegations of rape inside the jail that he supervised and lawsuits claiming that he covered up the episodes. At least five people, including one of his fellow deputies, accused him of beating others or choking them with a police baton.
In 2006, after Grassaree and his staff left jail cell keys hanging on a wall, male inmates opened the doors to the cell of two women inmates and raped them, according to statements the women gave to state investigators. One of the women said Grassaree pressured her to sign a false statement to cover up the crimes, according to the state police report.
About a year later, in a lawsuit, four people who had been arrested gave sworn statements accusing Grassaree of violence. Two of the people said he choked or beat them while they were in his custody. A third said he pinned her against a wall and threatened to let a male inmate rape her.
All told, at least eight men — including four deputies and Grassaree himself — have been accused of sex abuse by women inmates who were being held in the Noxubee County jail while Grassaree was in charge.
Now, 18 years after a woman first said that he pressured her to lie about being raped, the former sheriff faces possible prison time.
In an interview from 2023, Reed said she wanted the public to know what happened to her in the hope that others would come forward. “Women in jail and prison need to be protected, she said.
In 2018, when Mike DeWine was Ohio’s attorney general, he began investigating an obscure corner of the health care industry.
He believed that insurers were inflating prescription drug prices through management companies that operated as middlemen in the drug supply chain. There were concerns that these companies, known as pharmacy benefit managers, or P.B.M.s, were fleecing agencies like Medicaid, the government-run health insurance program for the poor.
Three years later, after Mr. DeWine became governor of Ohio, the state announced an $88 million settlement with one of the nation’s largest insurance companies, Centene.
The case led to a nationwide reckoning for the company, as attorneys general in one state after another followed Ohio’s lead, announcing multimillion-dollar settlements and claiming credit for forcing Centene to reform its billing practices.
On the surface, it appeared that these settlements, which now total nearly $1 billion, were driven by state governments cracking down on a company that had ripped off taxpayers.
But a New York Times investigation, drawing on thousands of pages of court documents, emails and other public records in multiple states, reveals that the case against Centene was conceived and executed by a group of powerful private lawyers who used their political connections to go after millions of dollars in contingency fees.
The Centene case was organized by at least four law firms, several with close ties to former Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi. Credit: Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press
The lawyers were first hired in Ohio, without competitive bidding. Then, they gathered evidence against Centene of questionable billing practices across the country.
Using information they acquired from Centene and other sources, they negotiated with the company to set the basic framework of an agreement that could be applied in other states. With that in hand, they approached attorneys general in multiple states and made a compelling offer: hire them, at no direct cost to taxpayers, and recoup millions of dollars Centene had already set aside.
So far, the lawyers have been awarded at least $108 million in fees.
The Centene case is just one example in a thriving industry that allows private lawyers to partner with elected attorneys general and temporarily gain powers usually reserved for the government. Under the banner of their state partners, these lawyers sue corporations and help set public policy while collecting millions of dollars in fees, usually based on a percentage of whatever money they recoup. The practice has become standard fare in the oversight of major industries, shifting the work of accountability away from legislators and regulators to the opaque world of private litigation.
Private lawyers do not have to publicly defend the deals they make or prove how aggressively they went after a company accused of wrongdoing. Nearly all their work happens in secret, especially if companies settle before the stage of a lawsuit when evidence is filed with the court.
The lawyers do not even have to disclose who worked on a case or who was paid, so the public may be left unable to monitor potential conflicts of interest even as the lawyers pursue litigation on behalf of the people.
The Centene case was organized by the Mississippi-based law firm Liston & Deas along with at least three other firms, several with close ties to former Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, who was once considered one of the most influential Republican power brokers in the nation.
The Mississippi Division of Medicaid office in Jackson. Credit: .Rory Doyle for The New York Times
The lawyers included Paul Hurst, who served as Mr. Barbour’s chief of staff when he was governor and who married into Mr. Barbour’s family, and David H. Nutt, one of the richest men in Mississippi, who amassed a fortune funding state lawsuits against tobacco companies. Cohen Milstein, a huge national law firm with deep experience in contingency work for state attorneys general, was also part of the venture.
Though he is not listed in any government contracts as a lawyer of record, Mr. Barbour himself was a member of the legal team when Liston & Deas vied for the contract in Ohio.
At the time, Mr. Barbour also worked for Centene as a federal lobbyist.
Even now, close to three years after Centene signed its first settlements, no one has fully explained Mr. Barbour’s role in the case for the company. There is no way for the public to know whether he influenced the outcome or to measure whether Centene paid its full share, because the data used to calculate what Centene overcharged remains hidden from the public under provisions designed to protect attorney work product.
Mr. Barbour and other lawyers said that the former governor worked on the case for less than a year when the group was examining several insurance companies, and that he cut ties when Centene emerged as the primary target. Mr. Barbour said he informed Centene and his colleagues about the development and was never involved in negotiations or legal matters. He continued representing Centene as a lobbyist, he said, but his role in the case on behalf of the company was as “more of an observer.”
The lawyers said that Mr. Barbour was never paid for his work and that the settlement was not influenced by Mr. Barbour’s connections to Centene or to the lawyers who remained. They said each state attorney general reviewed Centene’s billing practices when deciding whether to enter a settlement agreement.
In recent years, P.B.M.s have been widely criticized, including by members of Congress, who have held multiple hearings and proposed legislation. The Centene settlements stand as the most successful attempt to hold a company operating in the industry accountable.
Liston & Deas and its partner law firms uncovered that Centene had arranged discounts with CVS Caremark on certain drugs and then pocketed the savings instead of passing them on to Medicaid. In some states, they revealed that Centene layered on unnecessary management fees that it had not disclosed. Although Centene settled without admitting guilt, the company agreed to be more transparent in how it sets reimbursement rates.
The lawyers noted that they spent several years investigating Centene and negotiating with the company at their own risk, saving states the cost of building a case.
Mr. Nutt, one of the lawyers who pursued the case, said states were happy with the terms of the settlements.
“Almost every one of those states audited to determine if our damage model was fair,” Mr. Nutt said.
“The formula was based on a triple damages model that we developed. And everybody was quite satisfied with it, because it was three times what anybody could have proven in court.”
Hiring Outside Counsel
For most of their history, state attorneys general were largely focused on advising state officials on legal matters and representing local agencies in court.
That changed drastically almost 30 years ago, when states came together to sue tobacco companies and won a $206 billion settlement to cover the cost of medical care related to smoking. The lawsuit helped redefine the role of the attorney general as one of the most powerful positions in state government and a natural place to start a political career.
Through high-profile lawsuits against corporations, an attorney general could directly affect policy and build a reputation as a champion of the people.
But complex litigation against large companies can require years of investigation and legal work, with no guarantee of success. Increasingly, states have turned to private lawyers willing to work on contingency as a way to stretch limited resources.
The rise of contingency fee cases kicked off a new wave of lobbying across the nation. Law firms looking for contracts have poured money into attorney general election campaigns and sponsored conferences at high-priced resorts, where private lawyers mingle with attorneys general and pitch their latest ideas for lawsuits.
Many states have capped how much lawyers can be paid in contingency fees and have increased oversight of private firms working for the government. But there remains concern about undue political influence and potential conflicts of interest.
The heads of the nation’s largest tobacco companies at a 1994 congressional hearing about the contents of cigarettes. The success of state litigation against the tobacco industry helped transform the role of attorneys general. Credit: John Duricka/Associated Press
“In theory, there’s an incentive to have the settlement be as big as possible, and of course that’s great for the state,” said Paul Nolette, a professor at Marquette University who has studied how the role of attorneys general has changed over time.
But in reality, lawyers have an incentive to recover the largest amount of money in the shortest amount of time, which could pressure them to water down settlements and compromise on punitive measures, Dr. Nolette said.
“I think that does raise some questions about how forcefully A.G.s and private attorneys are prosecuting a particular case,” he said.
Several experts said that contingency cases had recouped billions of dollars on behalf of the public and had become a critical way to regulate the behavior of powerful industries and large corporations.
But inviting private lawyers to help set public policy has inherent risks, they said.
Private lawyers may be more likely to have conflicts of interest because they generally represent many businesses and individuals, not just the citizens of a state.
And unlike most attorneys general, private lawyers are not elected officials. They are not generally governed by open records laws or subject to public pressure, as from legislators setting their budgets.
In the Centene case, Mr. Barbour’s associations with both Centene and the private lawyers raise “important questions” about who controlled the case to make sure it was pursued in the best interests of states that settled, said Kathleen Clark, a professor of legal ethics at Washington University in St. Louis.
“Did state A.G.s proactively pursue these cases, or did they passively accept the ‘free money’ or ‘easy money’ of the proposed settlements that the law firms had already negotiated with Centene?” Ms. Clark asked.
Christina Saler, a partner at Cohen Milstein, said Mr. Barbour’s early association with the legal team was not a conflict of interest because Mr. Barbour withdrew from the case before lawyers started investigating Centene.
“After Mr. Barbour’s disassociation, we had no further contact with Mr. Barbour on this matter,” she said.
A Well-Connected Team
Mr. Barbour’s involvement in the Ohio case against P.B.M.s illustrates the potential for favoritism when states hire private lawyers.
Mr. Hurst noted the involvement of Mr. Barbour when seeking the contract in Ohio, according to emails acquired from the Ohio attorney general’s office through a public records request.
In a June 22, 2018, email exchange, just a few days before the state hired Liston & Deas, Mr. Hurst recalled meeting with the attorney general’s staff in Ohio.
Mr. Hurst went on to note that members of his team had worked with Governor Barbour while he was in office and that they all “continue to work together now.”
In an email a week later, an assistant attorney general shared Mr. Barbour’s cell number with Mr. DeWine, saying that Mr. Barbour had shared it so he could “call him about this case anytime.”
Mr. Barbour, who had served two terms as governor of Mississippi, was a former chairman of the Republican Governors Association and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Known as a prolific fund-raiser, he was credited with bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars to support Republican candidates across the nation.
In 1991, Mr. Barbour co-founded BGR Group, a lobbying firm that quickly became one of the most influential in Washington.
A portrait of Mr. Barbour, right, at the State Capitol in Jackson. He was Mississippi’s governor from 2004 to 2012. Credit: Rory Doyle for The New York Times
Two decades later, when Mr. DeWine was in the midst of a hard-fought campaign for governor, Mr. Barbour’s close associates solicited him for the legal work on the Centene case. In October 2018, less than three months after Mr. DeWine hired Liston & Deas, he traveled to Washington to visit Mr. Barbour’s lobbying firm for several hours, according to calendar records.
At the time, Mr. Barbour and others at BGR were registered lobbyists for Centene.
Mr. Barbour has never been named in state contracts as one of the private lawyers on the case in Ohio or anywhere else. His involvement has rarely, if ever, been publicly reported.
Ms. Saler, of Cohen Milstein, said there was no need to inform state officials because Mr. Barbour had not been involved in the Centene portion of the case and had exited the venture several years before states hired the lawyers.
At least four law firms were involved in the case in two or more states, according to retainer agreements and financial records showing broadly how settlement funds were disbursed.
According to Max Littman, a former data analyst with HealthPlan Data Solutions, the analytics firm that helped identify Centene’s overcharges in Ohio, one important role for many of the lawyers was to use their connections as they presented the overcharges to various states.
Mr. Littman, who said he worked closely with the legal team, described the dynamic: Liston & Deas, with roots in a deeply red state, would approach Republican attorneys general, and Cohen Milstein, “who were our Democrats,” would focus on Democratic states.
When The Times asked for records showing Liston & Deas’s qualifications to be hired to represent the State of Ohio, the attorney general’s office said no records existed. Cohen Milstein and other law firms had submitted such documentation in the past when seeking contracts in Ohio.
Settling With States
In June 2021, nearly three years after Ohio hired its outside counsel, two states announced the first settlements with Centene on the same day: Ohio would get $88 million, Mississippi $55 million.
After that, Centene settled in one state after another, often with just months between announcements.
In fact, Centene had already set aside $1.1 billion to handle all subsequent cases. The company estimated the amount after early discussions with the private lawyers that did not involve the state attorneys general who would later work with them.
David Nutt & Associates and Liston & Deas, both based in Ridgeland, Miss., worked on Centene settlements in multiple states. Credit: Rory Doyle for The New York Times
With a settlement in hand and an estimate of how much each state could collect, the private lawyers had a powerful pitch. The team also had the option to file whistle-blower lawsuits, which can advance without a state attorney general’s having to hire outside counsel.
The team pursued whistle-blower lawsuits in Texas, California and Washington.
In Texas, the whistle-blower lawsuit came with a benefit for Attorney General Ken Paxton: Under Texas law, his office is allowed to recoup “reasonable attorney’s fees” for work associated with such cases. It collected nearly $25 million in legal fees on the Centene case while spending just 561 hours on it, financial records show. That comes out to more than $44,000 per hour of work. The Texas attorney general’s office declined to comment.
Ms. Saler said all the state attorneys general decided their own strategies in reaching settlements with Centene based on the best interest of taxpayers in their states.
In states that hired the lawyers on contingency, the attorney general closely reviewed Centene’s billing practices. But no state has revealed whether its own overcharge calculations matched those of the private lawyers.
State officials who hired Liston & Deas and the other firms knew that the lawyers had previously negotiated with Centene. But in a vast majority of states, officials did not explicitly address that fact when talking publicly about the settlements.
In addition, Liston & Deas and most of the states the firm worked for have not revealed exactly how much Centene overcharged for drugs or how settlement amounts were calculated. A few states have offered sparse descriptions, which vary widely.
The New Hampshire attorney general’s office wrote in its settlement announcement that Centene’s activities had a “$2.4 million negative financial impact.” Centene agreed to pay the state nearly 10 times that amount.
The attorney general’s office in Washington, one of the few states where officials agreed to discuss basic details about the settlement with The Times, said the $33 million it recovered amounted to treble damages.
A news release from the California attorney general’s office said the state recovered double its damages, for a total settlement of more than $215 million.
As of last month, Centene had settled in at least 19 states. The Liston & Deas website says Centene will ultimately pay about $1.25 billion to 22 states.
A Sweetheart Deal?
Some observers believe Centene would have faced stricter penalties if the federal government had taken up the case instead of private lawyers hopscotching from one state to the next.
Several experts in health care fraud litigation and whistle-blower cases said the best way to recoup money for taxpayers would have been to file a federal whistle-blower case, similar to what the lawyers did in state court in Texas and California.
A federal case could have triggered the involvement of the Justice Department, which might have investigated Centene more thoroughly. And a federal case probably would have gotten more attention and media coverage, required more transparency and taken longer to complete, the experts said.
Mr. Hurst and other lawyers in the case said they had not filed any type of federal action against Centene.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department confirmed that it had inquired about the P.B.M. and Centene cases in Ohio, but no further federal action was taken. The department declined further comment.
Mary Inman, a lawyer at Whistleblower Partners L.L.P. with decades of experience, said one of the reasons Liston & Deas wound up in state court might have been that its case relied on whistle-blowers the federal government was unlikely to approve.
The whistle-blower in Texas was Mr. Hurst. In California, the whistle-blower was Matthew McDonald, a lawyer at David Nutt & Associates and the son of Bryan McDonald, who worked in Mr. Barbour’s administration when he was governor.
Ms. Inman said whistle-blowers are typically insiders with firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing who share information at some risk to themselves, not lawyers who gain information while on the job.
“It’s very unusual,” Ms. Inman said. “And it’s something that I, as a longtime lawyer in this space, I would not want to do because atmospherically and reputationally it doesn’t look great.”
Mr. Barbour said he believes everyone walked away from the settlements happy — including executives at Centene. As evidence, he cited the company’s stock performance.
“I can’t speak for them, but if I had agreed to pay a big settlement and my stock went up after the first day, I would think it was a pretty good settlement,” Mr. Barbour said.
Senate leaders this week are trying to drum up votes for a Medicaid “expansion light” proposal that would cover far fewer uninsured Mississippians — about 49,000 less — than a House-passed bill and would leave hundreds of millions of federal dollars on the table.
Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families and a Medicaid expert, told Mississippi Today that the Senate’s approach would do little to address Mississippi’s need for a healthy workforce and very few people who need health insurance coverage to protect them from high medical bills would get it.
“It is also a very fiscally irresponsible approach for Mississippi’s taxpayers as the state would be turning down $690 million that the federal government has put on the table for Mississippi’s health care system,” Alker said.
A draft of the Senate proposal was provided to Mississippi Today on Wednesday. Senate leaders have said for weeks they had a Medicaid plan forthcoming, but it has yet to be made public or presented for a committee vote. The House passed its HB1725 expansion bill in February.
The Senate draft proposal would:
Cover working Mississippians up to 99% of the federal poverty level. For an individual that would be an annual income up to $15,060. For a family of four that would be an annual income up to $31,200.
Not cover those making between 100% and 138% of the FPL — not even through a private-care option. A plan that doesn’t cover people making up to 138% is not considered “expansion” under the Affordable Care Act, meaning Mississippi wouldn’t qualify for the 90% federal match rate that the ACA grants to new expansion states, nor the additional, two-year 5% increase in match rate the federal government provides to newly-expanded states under pandemic relief spending passed by Congress. Instead, as was the case with Georgia, Mississippi would only get its regular federal Medicaid rate of about 77%.
Leave the health insurance exchange, the online marketplace that offers federally subsidized plans to people who make between 100% and 138% of the FPL, intact. The Senate plan, unlike Arkansas’ Medicaid expansion, would not provide extra subsidies from the state’s federal Medicaid money available from the ACA.
Include a work requirement mandating at least 120 hours of employment a month in a position for which health insurance is not paid for by the employer. That’s more stringent than Georgia’s plan, which mandates 80 hours a month. There are several exemptions, such as for full-time students or parents who are the primary caregiver of a child 6-years-old or younger.
Go into effect 30 days after CMS approves a waiver necessary for the work requirement. That’s unlikely to happen under the Biden administration, which has rescinded work requirements previously approved for other states during the Trump administration and has not approved new ones. If CMS denies the waiver, Mississippi would have to wait until a new administration took office, or sue the Biden administration. Georgia remains in litigation with the federal government over the work requirement issue, and has suffered low enrollment and missed out on millions in federal funds by not fully expanding coverage.
Require anyone who voluntarily dropped private insurance to wait 12 months before applying for Medicaid coverage.
Senate Medicaid Committee Chairman Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven who authored the proposal, declined to comment on the substance of the proposal, but he stressed to Mississippi Today that he and Senate leaders are still tweaking parts of the legislation.
Since the Senate let its own Medicaid bill — which was a “dummy” with no details — die, the House measure is the only expansion still alive this session. The Senate Medicaid Committee is expected to insert the Senate proposal as a “strike-all” amendment.”
While House Bill 1725 – which overwhelmingly passed the House – also has a work requirement, it is only a “best-case scenario.” The bill has a provision that if federal authorities do not approve the waiver necessary to allow a Mississippi work requirement by Sept. 30, 2024, Medicaid would still be fully expanded to people up to 138% of the federal poverty level, starting in January 2025. That means under the House plan, Mississippi would receive the 90% federal match, as well as an additional nearly $700 million that would make expansion free to the state in the first two years of its adoption.
Since the Senate plan is drastically different than the House proposal, a final version would almost certainly be hammered out later in the session in a conference committee.
Blackwell’s proposal would insure less people, but his plan could be a way to convince more Republican senators, who have been more skeptical about expansion than their House counterparts, to vote in favor of the legislation.
The realpolitik is any final plan would have to pass the House and Senate by a two-thirds majority to show it has the potential to override a potential veto from Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.
Reeves has privately told senators that he plans to veto a Medicaid expansion bill if it reaches his desk and has been a vocal opponent of expanding Medicaid coverage.
The deadline for the bill to pass Senate committee is April 2, with an April 10 deadline to pass the Senate floor.
Brian Howey and Nate Rosenfield are examining the power of sheriffs’ offices in Mississippi as part of The Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship.
A former sheriff’s deputy who subjected Mississippi residents to physical and sexual assaults was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in federal prison.
The officer, Christian Dedmon, was associated with a group of law enforcement officers that terrorized Rankin County and called itself the “Goon Squad.”
During the hearing, Judge Tom Lee of the U.S. District Court said that, while Mr. Dedmon was not the most senior officer facing prison time, his actions were “the most shocking, brutal and cruel acts imaginable.”
Daniel Opdyke, a member of the squad, was also sentenced Wednesday. Mr. Opdyke received almost 18 years in prison. His attorneys said he had played a smaller role in the abuse.
Earlier in the week, two other group members, Hunter Elward and Jeffrey Middleton, were sentenced to 20 years and almost 18 years. Mr. Elward had shot one of the victims in the mouth; Mr. Middleton was a lieutenant who supervised the group.
Two more squad members are expected to receive sentences Thursday. All six pleaded guilty to state and federal charges last year.
Former Rankin County law enforcement officer Christian Dedmon, enters Rankin County Circuit Court, where he pled guilty to all charges before Judge Steve Ratcliff, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023 in Brandon. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
An investigation by the Justice Department found the former officers, most of whom worked for the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, beat and tortured two Black men during a warrantless raid of their home last year.
The deputies showed up after the department’s former chief investigator, Brett McAlpin, received a tip that Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker were involved in suspicious activity. The officers burst inside, shocked Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker with Tasers and abused them with a sex toy, the investigation found.
Mr. Dedmon, 28, played a prominent role in the assault, prosecutors said. He slapped Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker with the sex toy, tried to shove it in their mouths and threatened to rape them.
Mr. Dedmon also beat and sexually assaulted a white man, Alan Schmidt, during a December 2022 traffic stop, according to an interview with Mr. Schmidt and statements from prosecutors. Mr. Schmidt told The New York Times and Mississippi Today that Mr. Dedmon threatened to kill him and dump his body in the Pearl River while Mr. Opdyke and Mr. Elward watched.
During that incident, Mr. Dedmon fired his gun into the air, then punched Mr. Schmidt and shocked him with a Taser, Mr. Schmidt recalled. He also pressed his genitals against Mr. Schmidt’s mouth and bare buttocks while Mr. Schmidt was handcuffed.
“I pray to God for these officers’ souls to be healed of the evil within that caused them to commit these acts,” Mr. Schmidt wrote in a victim impact statement read by prosecutors Wednesday. “I know that I am not their only victim.”
Alan Schmidt stands next to Interstate 20 in Jackson, Miss., where he says Rankin County sheriffs deputies assaulted him in December 2022.
GOON-SQUAD Credit: Rory Doyle for The New York Times
In court, Mr. Dedmon denied sexually assaulting Mr. Schmidt, but apologized for his conduct. “Instead of doing the right thing, I chose to show off,” he said. “If I could take every bit of it back, I promise I would.”
A culture of misconduct reigned at the sheriff’s office, Mr. Dedmon said, and he rose through the ranks to become the department’s youngest investigator because of his willingness “to do bad things.”
Prosecutors told the judge that according to a memorandum on their investigation that is still under seal, Mr. Dedmon had been involved in other similar episodes.
Mr. Opdyke’s lawyers had asked the judge to sentence their client to seven years in prison, 10 years less than the maximum.
They made the case that Mr. Opdyke, 27, deserved lenience because he was the youngest and least-experienced deputy in the Goon Squad and had committed the fewest acts of abuse during both cases. They also said Mr. Opdyke, who was neglected and abused as a child, saw the group leader Mr. McAlpin as a father figure and followed him “right or wrong, without question.”
“It was not until he got indoctrinated into the Goon Squad cult that he briefly became a person that nobody recognized,” Jeffery Reynolds, one of Mr. Opdyke’s lawyers, said.
Mr. Opdyke accepted responsibility for his actions and read an apology. “I swore to protect you,” he said, facing Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker. “But when it came to action I was a coward, and I failed to do it.”
As he spoke, Mr. Parker walked out of the courtroom. “That apology was only because he got caught,” Mr. Parker later said.
Local activists said they hoped the sentences were the beginning of a long process that would hold law enforcement officers accountable for decades of abuses. They renewed their calls for Sheriff Bryan Bailey of Rankin County to be criminally charged.
“The only missing defendant is Bryan Bailey,” Malik Shabazz, a lawyer representing Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker,said. “The sheriff created this culture and climate.”
Mr. Bailey, who has not attended any of the hearings so far this week, did not respond to requests for comment.
An investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times last year exposed a decades-long reign of terror by nearly two dozen Rankin County deputies.
More than 20 people said they were tortured during warrantless raids and violent interrogations by deputies, most of whom have not yet been charged with a crime and some of whom still work for the sheriff’s department.
A minister collapsed at the Mississippi State Capitol on Wednesday while standing with fellow clergy members pleading with lawmakers to expand Medicaid coverage to some of the state’s poorest residents.
The Rev. Darryl Magee, senior pastor at St. Thomas Missionary Baptist Church in Bolton, was carried away from the building by ambulance after experiencing a medical emergency. He was resuscitated by doctors at the Capitol and rushed to Baptist Medical Center, where he was awake and with family on early Wednesday afternoon.
The emergency halted a press conference, where about 50 clergy members from different denominations were advocating for Medicaid expansion. Dozens of people watched silently in the rotunda while doctors worked to save the pastor’s life. Several bystanders hugged others or wiped tears from their faces, and many ministers prayed for Magee as he was being tended to.
Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who holds enormous sway over the Medicaid expansion debate, was being addressed by those speaking at the press conference. After Magee collapsed, Hosemann watched from the third-floor railing while responders revived the pastor.
Together for Hope President Jason Coker and clergy from across the state, urge legislators to expand Medicaid during a press conference held at the State Capitol, Wednesday, March 20, 2024 in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
“Providing affordable health care for hard-working and vulnerable Mississippians is a matter of life and death,” Jason Coker, the president of the nonprofit Together for Hope, said shortly before Magee collapsed. “All the clergy here today are asking our government, the government of Mississippi, to choose life.”
The harrowing moment at the Capitol occurred as the Republican-controlled Senate considers legislation that overwhelmingly passed the Republican-controlled House in February to expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor. Senate Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, is expected to release a separate expansion proposal in the coming days.
As Easter Sunday approaches, Bishop Ronnie Crudup Sr., the senior pastor of New Horizon Church International in Jackson, urged lawmakers to remember that a key lesson from the religious holiday was that Jesus sacrificed himself to benefit other people.
He specifically asked the 52-member Senate to set partisanship aside and approach Medicaid expansion, a policy some conservative Republicans oppose, in the same manner.
“I call upon the Senate to inconvenience itself, to be willing to make a sacrifice, so that those that are lacking in this state can get their due share,” Crudup said. “So their families can be stronger and the state of Mississippi will be better because those folks are healthier.”
New Horizon Church International Pastor Ronnie Crudup, Sr. and other clergy from across the state during a press conference urging legislators to expand Medicaid, Wednesdsay, March 20, 2024 in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Mississippi only offers Medicaid to families who make up to 28% of the federal poverty level – the federal minimum. However, thousands of Mississippians make more money than 28% of the poverty level, but don’t make enough money to afford health insurance.
Experts estimate that 123,000 uninsured Mississippians would gain coverage under the expansion plan that passed the House. That number includes the 74,000 people under the poverty level and an additional 49,000 uninsured adults whose income is between 100% and 138% of the federal poverty level.
“I know log truck drivers that this bill could help,” Heath Ferguson, the lead chaplain for Mississippi’s Baptist Health System, said during the press conference on Wednesday. “I know small-town folks that this could help. I know that those who work from barber shops to our tire shops who need this help. And I also know lots of small-church pastors that need this help tremendously.”
As emergency responders worked to save Magee’s life, the group of clergy joined hands with others gathered at the Capitol for a prayer circle.
“I pray now, God, for a favorable outcome for Pastor Magee,” state Sen. Gary Brumfield, D-McComb, prayed. “We pray that you would move in this situation … We pray, too, God, that you would move in this Senate, that you will meet the needs that people are crying out for in our state.”
Clergy from across the state during a press conference at the State Capitol urge legislators to expand Medicaid, Wednesdsay, March 20, 2024 in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Chris Jans has his Mississippi State Bulldogs in the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive year.
The Answer Man returns with all the answers to questions readers are asking about March Madness.
Q. What do you think about Mississippi State’s chances in the NCAA Tournament?
A. The Bulldogs could make a run, and I say this for a couple reasons. In the NCAA Tournament, every game is on the road and defense travels. Under Chris Jans, State plays excellent defense. The Bulldogs guard. They protect the rim. That will serve them well. The Bulldogs led the SEC in steals. They were third in defensive field goal percentage. They were first in three-point defense. Those are all reasons why they were 8-1 in neutral site games this season. Secondly, basketball’s postseason is all about playing your best in March – peaking, as the announcers put it. State played really well in the SEC Tournament, beating LSU and and fifth-ranked Tennessee both by double digits before losing a close one in the semifinals to No. 12 Auburn.
Rick Cleveland
Q. What about the first round matchup with Michigan State?
A. As with most 8 and 9-seed games, it’s a virtual toss-up. Michigan State is a slight favorite, but I think State should be favored. Michigan State lost four of its last five regular season games and split two games in the Big 10 Tournament at Minneapolis. Give Michigan State a huge edge in NCAA Tournament familiarity. Under Tom Izzo, the Spartans are March Madness regulars. Michigan State has played in 26 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, the nation’s longest active streak and the third longest in history. That’s probably why the Spartans are favored.
Q. If I am a State fan, what should I worry about most?
A. That’s an easy one: free throw shooting. In the Big Dance, free throws often decide the outcome. And, for State, free throws have been anything but free. State was last in the SEC, and it wasn’t close with the Bulldogs hitting only 67%. That won’t cut it in the mid-to-late March. If you are into worrying, here’s a bigger reason to fret: Should No. 1 seed North Carolina advance, as expected, that’s the next opponent for the Mississippi State-Michigan State winner. In Charlotte, that would be almost like a home game for the Tar Heels.
Q. Should I be worried about 19-year-old freshman Josh Hubbard, State’s leading scorer and recent winner of the Howell Trophy, playing for the first time under the bright lights of the NCAA Tournament?
A. Honestly, that would be the least of my worries. From what I can tell, Josh Hubbard is fearless. He can’t wait.
Q. It has been 28 years since Mississippi State became the only Magnolia State team to make it to the Final Four of the men’s tournament. Could it happen again?
A. The odds are definitely against it. In ’96, from mid-February forward, Richard Williams’ Bulldogs were as consistently as good as anyone in the country, including eventual national champion Kentucky. This State teams has not been nearly as consistent in February and March. As good as these Bulldogs are defensively, they do not have the inside defensive force that Erick Dampier provided 28 years ago. Plus, the free throw thing is really worrisome. It’s possible, not likely. The Vegas odds are 150 to 1 against State winning it all 33 to 1 against State making The Final Four.
Q. Let’s switch to the women. Ole Miss and Jackson State are both dancing. What are their chances?
A. The Women’s NCAA Tournament is so much more top-heavy than the men. In reality, there are probably 20 men’s teams that could get hot at the right time and win it all. In the women’s tournament, I would take South Carolina, LSU and UConn, give you the rest of the field and give you odds. South Carolina is far and away the betting favorite and should be. Jackson State is a 33.5-point underdog to UConn in the first round. Coach Tomekia Reed’s team has little chance at all to advance, especially since it’s a home game for UConn. This should not take away from what Reed’s team has achieved, which is much. The Tigers went 18-0 (9-0 on the road) in the SWAC. They were perfect. That’s a heckuva feat.
Q. What about Iowa and Caitlin Clark?
A. Win or lose, Clark will surely make the NCAA Women’s Tournament TV ratings the highest in history. She has elevated the sport. All eyes are on Clark, but Iowa’s team just isn’t as athletic as the teams it must eventually beat to win it all. I’m talking about South Carolina, LSU and UConn, South Carolina especially.
Q. So, who you got to win the titles?
A. The UConn men and the South Carolina women. Yes, both are the betting favorites. There’s good reason for that. But if you’re looking for a darkhorse, take the Auburn men. The championship odds are 18-to-1 against the Tigers who have won six straight, seven of eight and 11 of their last 14. They are blistering hot at the right time.
The DeSoto County town of Lewisburg can lay claim to being the baseball capital of Mississippi. The defending state champion Lewisburg High Patriots, with a roster that includes 13 Division I baseball signees, currently rank No. 10 nationally and play a regional schedule of national powerhouses. Coach Rusty Cagle joins the podcast to discuss his team.
Brian Howey and Nate Rosenfield are examining the power of sheriffs’ offices in Mississippi as part of The Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship. Jerry Mitchell is an investigative reporter who has examined civil rights-era cold murder cases in the state for more than 30 years.
Two former law enforcement officers who were part of a self-styled “Goon Squad” that tortured, sexually assaulted and beat residents of a Mississippi county were given hefty prison sentences on Tuesday for brutally attacking two Black men last year.
A federal judge ordered Hunter Elward, who shot one of the victims in the mouth, to serve 20 years in prison. Jeffrey Middleton, a former lieutenant who supervised the Goon Squad, was sentenced to nearly 18 years.
Mr. Elward broke down in tears as he turned to face Eddie Parker, 36, and Michael Jenkins, 33, and apologized for what he had done to them.
“I hate that I was involved in this,” he said. “I hate what’s happened to them.”
As Mr. Elward left the podium, Mr. Parker stood up and said that he forgave him.
Outside the courtroom, Mr. Jenkins, the man Mr. Elward shot in the face during what was described as a mock execution, said that he did not forgive Mr. Elward. “If he wouldn’t have gotten caught, he would still be doing the same thing,” Mr. Jenkins said.
Four other officers will face sentencing this week in the federal courthouse in Jackson. All of them pleaded guilty this summer to federal civil rights offenses related to their brutal treatment of Mr. Parker, Mr. Jenkins and a white man, Alan Schmidt, who was assaulted in a separate incident in December 2022.
This combination of 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 six white former Mississippi law officers pleaded guilty to state charges on Monday for torturing two Black men in a racist assault that ended with a deputy shooting one victim in the mouth. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
So far charges against officers in Rankin County have been narrowly focused on these two incidents, but residents in impoverished pockets of the county say that the sheriff’s department has routinely targeted them with similar levels of violence.
Last November, The New York Times and Mississippi Today published an investigation revealing that for nearly two decades, deputies in the Rankin sheriff department, many of whom called themselves the Goon Squad, would barge into homes in the middle of the night, handcuff people and torture them for information or confessions.
In the pursuit of drug arrests, the deputies rammed a stick down one man’s throat until he vomited, dripped molten metal onto another man’s skin and held people down and beat them until they were bloody and bruised, according to dozens of people who said they witnessed or experienced the raids.
Many of those who said they had experienced violence filed lawsuits or formal complaints detailing their encounters with the department. A few said they had contacted Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey directly, only to be ignored.
FILE – An anti-police brutality activist looks back at the entrance to the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office in Brandon, Miss., Wednesday, July 5, 2023, as the group called for the termination and prosecution of Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey for running a law enforcement department that allegedly terrorizes and brutalizes minorities. Six white former law enforcement officers in Mississippi have pleaded guilty to a racist assault on Michael Corey Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker, who are Black. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Sheriff Bailey, who has denied knowledge of the incidents, has faced calls to resign by local activists and the N.A.A.C.P. He has said he will not step down.
The sheriff’s department in Rankin County, a suburban area just outside Jackson, came to national attention last year after five Rankin County deputies and a Richland police detective raided the home of Mr. Parker and his friend, Mr. Jenkins, following a tip about suspicious activity.
The officers handcuffed the men and tortured them by shocking them repeatedly with Tasers, beating them and sexually assaulting them with a sex toy. Mr. Elward put his gun into Mr. Jenkins’s mouth and shot him, shattering his jaw and nearly killing him.
“They tried to take my manhood away from me,” Mr. Jenkins said in a statement to the court on Tuesday morning. “I don’t ever think I’ll be the person I was.”
The officers destroyed evidence and, to justify the shooting, falsely claimed that Mr. Jenkins had pointed a BB gun at them, federal prosecutors said.
During Mr. Middleton’s portion of the hearing, a federal prosecutor revealed that deputies under his supervision had carried commemorative coins printed with the words “Goon Squad.”
Early versions of the coin had an image of a confederate flag on one side and a noose on the other, said the prosecutor, Erin Chalk.
She also said that deputies had repeatedly shocked Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker with their Tasers, as if they were playing “Taser hot potato,” competing to see who could inflict the most damage.
Mr. Middleton apologized to the victims and his community. “I have failed every law enforcement officer in the United States because my actions have tarnished the badge,” he said.
Judge Tom Lee of U.S. District Court chastised Mr. Middleton for not stopping the attack or taking responsibility for the actions of the men under his command.
“Mr. Middleton was not a mere bystander,” he said. “He’s the superior officer. He knew what was happening. He could have stopped it.”
Both Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker said they were satisfied with the sentences handed down by Judge Lee.
Over the next two days, the other officers involved in the incident, who each could be sentenced to a decade or more in prison, will appear in federal court in Jackson.
Prosecutors are expected to detail the officers’ violent actions, and victims will have an opportunity to share their stories.
Two of the department’s deputies will also be sentenced for violently attacking Mr. Schmidt, 28.
Malcolm Holmes, a professor in the department of criminal justice and sociology at the University of Wyoming, said that the Goon Squad case was “going to be one that finds its way into the chronicles of history.”
“There’s so much well-documented evidence that this is a pattern of behavior,” he said, noting that the case revealed “something we’ve covered up for a long time, particularly in rural America.”
The sentencing hearings this week are expected to reveal more details about violence perpetrated by Rankin County deputies, including what happened to Mr. Schmidt.
In an interview with The Times and Mississippi Today last week, Mr. Schmidt spoke publicly for the first time about what happened in December 2022 when a Rankin County deputy pulled him over for driving with an expired tag.
According to the federal indictment, deputies Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward and Daniel Opdyke arrived at the scene shortly afterward. Two other deputies, including the one who pulled Mr. Schmidt over, were also present throughout the arrest, Mr. Schmidt said. Neither has been criminally charged.
Alan Schmidt stands next to Interstate 20 in Jackson, Miss., where he says Rankin County sheriffs deputies assaulted him in December 2022.
GOON-SQUAD Credit: Rory Doyle for The New York Times
Mr. Schmidt said the deputies accused him of stealing tools from his boss, and then Mr. Dedmon pressed a gun to his head and fired it into the air before threatening to dump his body in the Pearl River.
“I thought this was it,” Mr. Schmidt said. “I’m never going to see my family again.”
Mr. Dedmon and the other deputies punched Mr. Schmidt and held his arm in a fire ant hill, then shocked him repeatedly with a Taser, Mr. Schmidt said.
Mr. Dedmon also pressed his genitals against the man’s face and bare buttocks as he yelled for help and kicked at the deputy, Mr. Schmidt said.
“It still goes through my head constantly,” Mr. Schmidt said of the experience.
Rankin County District Attorney Bubba Bramlett has begun to review and dismiss criminal cases that had involved Goon Squad members, his office confirmed last week, but Mr. Bramlett declined to share details about the cases under review.
State lawmakers introduced a bill in January that would expand oversight of 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. Lawmakers have said that the Goon Squad and several other incidents of alleged police misconduct in Mississippi helped prompt the bill.
The Mississippi House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to pass the bill last week. The state senate is expected to vote on the measure in the coming weeks.
Since the fall of 2021, the city of Jackson’s garbage pickup has gotten by with piecemeal measures due to a lack of consensus among City Council members in selecting a vendor. The chaos peaked last spring, when resident’s garbage went uncollected for two weeks as city officials continued to quibble over picking a contractor.
On Tuesday afternoon, the council finally voted in favor of executing a six-year contract with Richard’s Disposal to collect the city’s garbage. The contract includes four one-year options to add on.
The vote was 4 to 3, with council persons Angelique Lee, Brian Grizzell, Virgi Lindsay, and president Aaron Banks voting in favor, and council persons Ashby Foote, Kenneth Stokes, and Vernon Hartley in opposition. In past votes when the mayor’s office proposed Richard’s as the vendor, Banks voted against the contract, but last week the council president told the Clarion Ledger he was left with no other option but to change his vote.
The council also voted to amend the contract by removing the 96-gallon carts that Richard’s had planned to provide to residents. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s office will have to negotiate the amended contract with the vendor.
Last month, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality fined the city $900,000 for the period it did not pick up garbage last year. However, the city will only have to pay $375,000 as long it collects garbage for the next two years.
Throughout the process, the opposing council members argued that Lumumba was steering the council towards voting for his favored vendor, Richard’s. Lumumba and his office repeatedly argued that Richard’s, a Black-owned business that employs mostly local residents for its Jackson operation, provided the best bid to the city in the previous RFP — request for proposals — process. Moreover, the mayor argued, it’s his role to pick the contract to present to the council.
“You can’t be the executive body and the legislative body at the same time,” Lumumba said during Tuesday’s meeting.
During this RFP, the city only received two bids: Richard’s and National Collection Systems. NCS’s bid, the mayor’s office said, didn’t meet the minimum requirements for the RFP, including being able to pay for backup trucks and to get an insurance bond to repair trucks as well as having enough residential pickup experience. Thus, Richard’s was the only remaining bid. Dissenting council members argued that it was suspicious that no other bids met the city’s requirements.
“We’ve been goaded into this selection,” Hartley said.
Other members countered that no other vendors were willing to deal with the city at this point.
“We’re wondering why we don’t have a number of bidders, it’s because they don’t want to deal with this dysfunctional body,” Lee said.
