A Lincoln County judge declared a mistrial in the case of a white Brookhaven father and son accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver last year.
The ruling came Thursday during the third day of the trial of Brandon Case and his father Gregory Charles Case, who were charged with attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting into a delivery van that D’Monterrio Gibson drove as he delivered packages Jan. 24, 2022.
Judge David Strong ended yesterday’s court session early because Brookhaven Police Detective Vincent Fernando said under oath, while the jury wasn’t in the courtroom, that he hadn’t previously given the prosecuting and defense attorneys a video statement police took from Gibson after his encounter with the Cases, AP reported.
“In 17 years, I don’t think I’ve seen it,” Strong said Thursday about the errors.
As of late Thursday morning, Strong had not issued that ruling in writing.
Attorney Carlos Moore, who represented Gibson, said it was concerning that the police withheld a potentially crucial piece of information, which necessitated a mistrial.
“I share the deep disappointment and frustration expressed by Circuit Judge David Strong over this development,” Moore said in a Thursday statement. “A mistrial represents not just an administrative setback but also a delay in justice for Mr. Gibson and his family.”
He has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to look into the Brookhaven police’s conduct as potential obstruction of justice.
During opening statements Monday, District Attorney Dee Bates told jurors Gibson was driving a rental van with the Hertz logo on three sides when he dropped off a package at a home on a dead-end road.
That was when Gregory Case drove a pickup to try and block Gibson from leaving, and his son came outside with a gun, Bates said. Three rounds hit the van as Gibson drove around the pickup.
The elder Case’s attorney told jurors he saw a van outside his unoccupied mother-in-law’s house and went to see what was happening. He wanted to ask the van driver what was happening, but the driver didn’t stop. The sun had set and Case thought someone was in the wrong place, the attorney said.
Gibson, who was 24 at the time of the incident, was not injured in the shooting.
Moore, who also represented Gibson in a federal lawsuit, has compared what happened to his client to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was chased by three white men and shot while exercising in 2020.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan on Aug. 10 approved motions to dismiss the $5 million lawsuit against FedEx, the city of Brookhaven, its police chief and the Cases last week. He said Moore failed to prove the company discriminated against Gibson based on race, according to court records.
AP reported that Moore said he plans to sue in state court. The attorney added that Gibson is still a FedEx employee and is currently out on workers’ compensation leave.
“We remain committed to seeking justice for D’Monterrio Gibson and ensuring that the legal process is fair, transparent, and accountable,” Moore said in the Thursday statement.
A slim majority of the governing board for Mississippi’s eight public universities voted to allow Elayne Hayes-Anthony, Jackson State University’s temporary acting president, to apply for the permanent role.
According to executive session minutes released Wednesday, seven trustees voted for the motion and five voted against, including Dr. Steven Cunningham, the only Jackson State alumnus on the board and the trustee who is leading the university’s presidential search.
Cunningham, a Hattiesburg-based radiologist, told Mississippi Today that he didn’t want to dissuade outside candidates from applying for the role. In recent years, the IHL board has tended to hire interim presidents instead of conducting a full-blown national search at the state’s universities.
“I just didn’t want anybody to be scared off,” Cunningham told Mississippi Today.
The vacancy at Jackson State, a historically Black university and the largest university in Mississippi’s capital city, comes after Thomas Hudson, who had been interim before getting the permanent position, became the third president in a row to resign earlier this year.
Though Hayes-Anthony said she was interested in the permanent post shortly after the board appointed her to the temporary position in March, trustees did not vote to allow her to apply until June, the minutes show. She could not be reached for comment by press time.
If the board hires Hayes-Anthony, the Jackson native and former chair of the university’s Department of Journalism and Media Studies would be the third consecutive internal hire within the state’s universities system. The tenures of the past two presidents at Jackson State — William Bynum, Jr., who was hired from Mississippi Valley State University, and Hudson — both ended in resignation.
Cunningham said he was voting for a thorough national search.
“It all comes down to the process,” he said. “As long as the process is an even process.”
Earlier this week, the Jackson Advocate’s Ivory Phillips reported that IHL Commissioner Al Rankins said the presidential search committee is working to make a hire by the end of the calendar year. A high-profile alumnus and a previous applicant that was highly rated are among the current applicants.
Cunningham told Mississippi Today that the search committee has received about 45 applications and is expecting more by the Aug. 21 deadline.
At a March press conference, Hayes-Anthony said she would be in the role as long as she is needed.
She also acknowledged the board has imposed various stipulations on her role. She said she could hire and fire people in coordination with Rankins. An IHL spokesperson said the board has not placed more restrictions on Hayes-Anthony than any other temporary or interim president in the system.
Last month, Hayes-Anthony wrote in a campus-wide email that Brandi Newkirk-Turner, the associate provost, had been reassigned but would remain as a faculty member in the Department of Communicative Disorders. Newkirk-Turner was among the administrators who received a no-confidence vote from the faculty senate earlier this year.
Hours later, Hayes-Anthony sent another email that Newkirk-Turner’s reassignment had been rescinded and she would remain associate provost.
Mike Justice coached high school football in north Mississippi, central Mississippi and south Mississippi. He coached tiny schools and big schools. One constant: Wherever he went and wherever he coached, he won and won big. With the 2023 season fast approaching, the football coach-turned-champion golfer and bass fisherman joins the Clevelands to talk football.
Legendary bluesman Robert Johnson lived mysteriously, and on this day, he died just as mysteriously at the age of 27.
Born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, he reportedly went from a young man with little talent for playing guitar to one of the most influential guitarists of all time. (According to myth, he went to a Delta crossroads and sold his soul to the devil in exchange for playing guitar.)
His cause of death remains a mystery to this day, and so does his burial. There are three headstones in the Mississippi Delta that mark where he may or may not be buried. He
Johnson recorded his first session in Room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio and reportedly sang while facing the wall. Despite the fact he recorded only 29 songs, his work became a huge influence, first in blues music, and then in the rock and roll that followed.
In 1986, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin are among the many who have cited his influence. Guitarist Eric Clapton has called Johnson “the most important blues singer that ever lived.”
Even if one were to believe erstwhile candidate Chris McDaniel’s incomplete, conflicting, shifting accounting of hundreds of thousands in secretive campaign donations, it still begs the question: Where did the $15,000 go?
It also begs the question: Why is Attorney General Lynn Fitch overlooking what appear to be flagrant violations of campaign finance law by McDaniel, instead only going after his out-of-state campaign finance chairman and less-clear allegations?
Longtime state Sen. Chris McDaniel’s failed run for lieutenant governor is one for the record books. Primarily, it saw record amounts of out-of-state, secretly sourced campaign money pumped into his campaign and related state PACs. It also saw allegations of flagrant violations of state campaign finance laws and reporting requirements, and has led to calls for reform by multiple statewide elected officials.
Mississippi law says a candidate or state political action committee can accept no more than $1,000 a year from a corporation.
McDaniel, running for lieutenant governor this year, created a state PAC that accepted $475,000 from a mysterious Virginia-based dark-money corporation, the American Exceptionalism Institute.
McDaniel’s PAC then funneled $460,000 of that money to his campaign. It made up the vast bulk of his bankroll as he kicked off his campaign early this year.
But his initial PAC reports appeared to obfuscate this. For starters, is showed the PAC had collected hundreds of thousands of dollars the year before it was legally created, with no sources listed for the donations. After multiple revised reports, it became clear the PAC had received $475,000 from AEI.
Eventually, after questions from Mississippi Today and complaints to the attorney general by his opponent incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, McDaniel said he was returning the money to AEI.
Problem is, by McDaniel’s own accounting, his PAC only returned $460,000 to the corporation.
What happened to the other $15,000?
Mississippi voters will likely never know. His final “termination-amended” report for his PAC gave no accounting. And Fitch appears to have closed the book on that complaint.
And despite laws that require candidates to divulge the sources of campaign donations, they’ll likely never know the original source of the $475,000 from the American Exceptionalism Institute, which has pumped millions of secretly sourced dollars into campaigns across the country.
They’ll also likely never know all the sources of the total of nearly $1 million more pumped into a separate PAC that McDaniel’s Wisconsin based treasurer created in the eleventh hour of the 2023 race to run TV attack ads on Hosemann.
McDaniel has said he knows very little about the finances of his PAC or campaign, and as he faced questions about them over months, he often chalked problems up to “clerical errors” and provided few other comments.
But in a statement for this article, he refuted that $15,000 remains unaccounted for.
“As a candidate, I have no involvement in the financial operations of any committee or PAC,” McDaniel said. “But I’ve been advised that all the money from the (American Exceptionalism Institute) was refunded.”
McDaniel has refused to answer what he knows about AEI or why it would pump nearly half a million dollars into Mississippi’s lieutenant governor’s race. Little information on AEI is available online, and efforts by Mississippi Today — and several other media outlets over years — to contact the organization or find more details have been fruitless.
When he announced he was returning the money, McDaniel said he believes Mississippi’s corporate donation limit laws are unconstitutional and would fall to a legal challenge. But he said he did not have time or resources for such a challenge, so he was giving it back.
McDaniel has referred to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Citizen’s United ruling in 2010, which held corporations and PACs can spend unlimited amounts on broadcasts and communications related to an election, provided they act independently of any candidate.
But courts have also upheld state limits or bans on corporate donations to campaigns or state PACs. Only five states allow unlimited corporate campaign donations, while 23 ban them. The other 22 set some restrictions on corporate donations.
Mississippi’s campaign finance laws are seldom enforced, and allegations of violations seldom investigated. The state’s laws regulating a politician’s campaign cash and reporting appear to fall under a special Oops Doctrine. If a campaign accepts an illegal contribution or makes a glaring omission or mistake on a report, it can typically avoid investigation or prosecution by giving the money back, amending reports or filing them later. Few other laws offer this escape.
But typically, these appear to be legitimate mistakes and oversights by large campaigns for far smaller donations. They are typically flagged by the campaigns themselves, the money returned promptly and the transactions duly noted on finance reports.
McDaniel’s PAC and campaign appear to have held onto AEI over-the-limit money for months, and its reporting was confounding. At one point, McDaniel’s PAC reported it returned $460,000 to AEI on the same day it received $237,500 from the corporation. His many amended reports have been difficult to follow.
Mississippi Today first raised questions about McDaniel’s campaign finances in February, and Hosemann filed his first legal complaint with the attorney general’s office in March. For months, AG Fitch’s office’s only response was, “We are looking into it.” This prompted calls for investigation and enforcement. Secretary of State Michael Watson at the Neshoba County Fair called for lawmakers to give his office campaign enforcement authority. He said, “When people do not do their jobs, I will stand in the gap for Mississippians” — a clear dig at Fitch.
Amid this pressure, just days before the primary election, Fitch announced she was investigating the separate PAC run by McDaniel’s campaign treasurer. The Invest in Mississippi political action committee was created in July by Wisconsin political operative Thomas Datwyler, who McDaniel also listed as his campaign’s treasurer. Datwyler has a history of running afoul of Federal Election Commission campaign finance rules with several congressional campaigns.
Datwyler’s PAC ran ads against Hosemann late in the race, fueled by at least $885,000 in donations from out of state super PACs. Hosemann’s campaign had filed another complaint late in the race that the PAC-to-PAC donations were an attempt to dodge the $1,000 corporate donation limits, and that the PAC cannot claim it is independent of McDaniel because it’s run by his campaign treasurer.
In a statement announcing the investigation, Fitch said, “The people of Mississippi should be able to expect that those who participate in our electoral process will not seek to exploit this careful balance and step over that line, and in this instance, there is evidence to suggest that has occurred here.”
Fitch did not mention McDaniel in her announcement of the investigation, but a spokeswoman for her office later indicated the office was also investigating another complaint raised by Hosemann.
But the spokeswoman also said another earlier complaint had been looked into and closed. This, the Hosemann campaign confirmed, was the original complaint about McDaniel’s PAC, the campaign and the $475,000 AEI donation.
Fitch’s office has declined comment on why it would not pursue the original complaint, including where the unaccounted-for $15,000 went. McDaniel appears to have acknowledged violation of the campaign donation limit laws, saying repeatedly he would likely win a legal challenge of the law.
Many political observers have surmised Republican Fitch is loathe to go after complaints about McDaniel for fear of angering his conservative base in the state GOP. Fitch’s office has faced some complaints of failing to fulfill responsibilities of the office, instead focusing on big headline-grabbing national issues and cases.
In a statement, Hosemann spokeswoman Leah Smith said: “When our opponent received $475,000 from the corporation and returned only $460,000, we contend a violation of the campaign finance laws occurred. It was impossible to determine what happened with those funds because accounting was so poor throughout, in addition to all of the other violations. We anticipate a number of legislators will be enthusiastically interested in reform this year and our office is, too.”
McDaniel, who after his defeat for lieutenant governor will be vacating his state Senate office in January after 16 years, was once himself a vocal champion for campaign finance reform and more transparency for voters of the source of politicians’ money. His latest campaign’s legacy, it appears, may be an invigorated push for reform.
In his victory speech on primary election night, Hosemann said: “When you have this much dark money pumped into a race — almost $1 million in the last week — it screams for reform. We are going to listen to those screams.”
Tupelo Councilwoman Nettie Davis on Monday reached an agreement with local prosecutors and a state judge to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of violating an election law, but she will avoid the penalty of being removed from office.
Senior Circuit Judge Paul Funderburk signed off on a “non-adjudication” agreement that accepts Davis’ guilty plea, requires her to pay $5,000 with $4,500 suspended, pay $227.75 in court fees and avoid a public trial.
Jim Waide, Davis’ attorney, told Mississippi Today that he wishes state prosecutors would have never brought the charge forward against his client, but he believes Monday’s plea deal with prosecutors was appropriate.
“Once the charges were brought, we didn’t have any choice but to accept an agreement where she wouldn’t be removed from office,” Waide said.
Her criminal case stemmed from comments she made in a 2021 “get out the vote” rally encouraging people to vote in the municipal elections. In her recorded comments, she said if voters brought back an “I voted” sticker, their name would be placed in a raffle for cash prizes.
The video did not record Davis advocating for any specific candidate or a particular political party. The raffle also never took place.
John Weddle, a northeast Mississippi district attorney, alleged Davis’ comments violated a law that prohibits anyone from offering “any prize, cash award or other items of value to be raffled, drawn for, played for or contested for in order to encourage a person to vote or to refrain from voting in any election.”
The penalty for violating the statute is only a misdemeanor and carries no jail time. But if the person convicted is an elected official, like Davis, the law calls for them to be removed from office.
Weddle, a Republican, began investigating Davis’ comments shortly after the video circulated online. He, along with Secretary of State Michael Watson, issued a press release just two days after her comments saying prosecutors would investigate the remarks.
The district attorney’s office presented Davis’ case to a grand jury, and it returned an indictment, sparking community leaders to decry Weddle’s prosecution of the local figure, a Democrat and civil rights veteran, and claim the efforts were politically motivated.
Those calls grew even more acute after Mississippi Today reported that a Republican candidate for state Senate, Lauren Smith, appeared to acknowledge in a video that she had voted in a Lee County district outside of her legal residence.
Smith’s political opponent and an independent election attorney believed Smith’s remarks were an admission she broke the law. Smith rejected that claim and said she did not violate any statute.
It’s unclear what will happen to Smith. Waide attempted to subpoena Smith’s testimony for Davis’ trial, but Monday’s agreement means she will not have to testify in the criminal case.
Weddle appears to have filed a sealed motion with the court, but it’s unclear what the motion specifically states. On behalf of Davis, Waide filed court documents saying Weddle’s sealed motion was an effort to block Smith from testifying in the case.
Waide alleged in the court document that Weddle was selectively prosecuting local candidates based on race and political party affiliation.
“Evidence will establish that the District Attorney has known since April 2023 of this misdemeanor election law violation by a white Republican candidate,” Waide’s motion reads. “The District Attorney has not announced any intent to prosecute this misdemeanor election law violation by a white Republican candidate.”
Weddle did not respond to a request for comment.
Incumbent state Sen. Chad McMahan defeated Smith in the Republican primary on August 8 by garnering around 55% of the vote.
A Lee County citizen has also filed an affidavit against McMahan accusing him of “voter intimidation.” A judge has yet to rule on whether the allegation meets the the threshold for a criminal act, and McMahan claims the allegations are a “political stunt.”
They come mostly from small towns, but Mississippi athletes made an huge impact around the globe this past weekend. Let’s take a look:
In women’s golf, Fulton’s Ally McDonald Ewing finished tied for sixth in the last major tournament of the year, the AIG (British) Women’s Open at Walton Heath Golf Club near London.
Ewing, a 30-year-old former Mississippi State All American, earned $278,545 and moved to nearly $4 million in career professional golf earnings. Her finish at Walton Heath followed a ninth place finish in last week’s Scottish Open and greatly enhanced her chances of being selected to the U.S. Solheim Cup team. She is now the No. 39 ranked women’s golfer in the world.
Rick Cleveland
“You finish in the top 10 in a major, you are playing some great, great golf,” said Jim Gallagher, the former touring pro and Golf Channel announcer, who closely follows the LPGA Tour. “What Ally did at Walton Heath doesn’t surprise me. She’s a great player who is playing some of her best golf right now.”
Ewing seems likely to be a captain’s pick for the Solheim Cup, which matches the best U.S. women’s players against the best from Europe, much like the Ryder Cup for men.
“It would be surprising if she didn’t make it,” Gallagher said. “She’s playing really well, she’s got international experience and she is so well-liked by the other players. Team chemistry is so important in these international matches.”
It would be a third Solheim appearance for Ewing. Stacy Lewis, a 13-time winner on the LPGA Tour, is the U.S. captain for the matches that will take place Sept. 22-24 in Finca Cortesin in Andalusia, Spain.
Austin Riley, from Southaven, blasted two more home runs for the Atlanta Braves in a four-game series at the New York Mets. For the season, Riley is hitting .280 with 28 home runs and 75 runs batted in for the Braves, who have the best record in baseball.
Austin RIley
Riley, who was offered football and baseball scholarships to Mississippi State before he signed a $1.6 million contract with the Braves straight out of Southaven High, currently ranks fifth in the National League in home runs, fifth in runs scored, and 9th in runs batted in. What’s more, he fields exceptionally well at third base, where he makes plays that remind this observer of Brooks Robinson or Clete Boyer in their prime.
At 26, Riley has become, without question, one of the best third basemen in the sport.
Swimmer Julia Dennis of Oxford, competing for Team USA in the LEN European U-23 Championships in Ireland, won gold and silver medals in freestyle sprints for the victorious U.S. team. The 19-year-old was a freshman All American at Louisville last spring and already has qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2024.
Julia Dennis
She won a silver medal in the 50-meter freestyle and a gold in the 4×100 mixed (men and women) relay team.
Dennis is the granddaughter of Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Mike Dennis, the former Ole Miss and NFL football star. But she has more than bloodlines going for her. It takes a lot more than the right gene pool to compete on the world stage.
“You can’t believe how hard Julia works at it,” said Mike Dennis. “I mean, for the last five or six years or so she has worked so hard to achieve what she has. We’re just so proud of her.”
Wilson Furr
Meanwhile, Jackson’s Wilson Furr finished in 20th place at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Pinnacle Bank Championships at Omaha with rounds of 64, 70, 70 and 71. Furr ranks No. 46 on the Korn Ferry points list. The top 30 on the points list will automatically advance to the PGA Tour in 2024. The top 75 retain full Korn Ferry Tour status. Former Ole Miss golfer Jackson Suber of Tampa is currently 19th on the Korn Ferry list. Both Suber and Furr will play in this week’s Magnit Championship in New Jersey, the last event before the Korn Ferry playoffs begin.
Meanwhile, former Jackson State Tiger Tim O’Neal, a persevering 51-year-old rookie on the PGA Champions Tour, finished tied for ninth in the Boeing Classic in Snoqualmie, Wash. It was O’Neal’s best finish yet on the senior tour and moved him to 43rd on the tour’s points list.
Six white former law enforcement officers pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution in their torturing of two Black men as part of a “Goon Squad” operation aimed at getting African Americans to “go back” to the predominantly Black city of Jackson.
“To my knowledge,” said Trent Walker, the attorney for the two men, “never in the history of Mississippi have, in particular, white officers been held to account for brutality against Black victims.”
On the evening of Jan. 24, five Rankin County deputies and a Richland police officer beat and tortured the handcuffed Black men, Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins, hurled racial slurs at them, accused them of “taking advantage” of the white female homeowner and warned them to stay out of Rankin County.
On Monday, Parker and Jenkins sat in a Rankin County courthouse and watched as the former law enforcement officers pleaded guilty. Afterward, Parker said, “I hope this is a lesson to everybody out there. Justice will be served.”
Michael Jenkins was in Rankin County Circuit Court, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, to hear the guilty pleas of the officers accused of beating and torturing them in January. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
They included former patrol deputy Hunter Elward, who shot Jenkins in the mouth, Brett McAlpin, who served as chief investigator for the sheriff’s office, Lt. Jeffrey Middleton, who supervised the “Goon Squad” shift, Christian Dedmon, who served as a narcotics investigator, Daniel Opdyke, who served as a patrol deputy, Josh Hartfield, who served as narcotics investigator for Richland Police Department.
Front and back of coin the member of the Rankin County “Goon Squad” of law enforcement officers carried.
Prosecution recommendations included these sentences: Elward, 15 years in prison; Dedmon, 10 years; McAlpin and Middleton, eight years; Opdyke and Hartfield, five years. No date has been set for their sentencings.
The officers previously pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges related to the beating, torture, unwarranted search and coverup. Sentencing hearings are set for mid-November.
On the evening of Jan. 24, a white neighbor informed McAlpin that “several Black males” were living in the home of a white woman in the neighborhood. According to the criminal information, the neighbor claimed he had seen “suspicious behavior” in the home.
McAplin ordered Dedmon to investigate. Dedmon texted fellow members of the Goon Squad, nicknamed because of the group’s willingness to beat people up during arrests.
Former Rankin County law enforcement officer Brett McAlpin, 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
“Are y’all available for a mission?” Dedmon texted, warning the officers that they might have to “work easy”— knocking on the men’s door instead of kicking it down — because the home was equipped with security cameras. Patrol deputy Daniel Opdyke texted back a gif of a baby crying.
Dedmon texted “no bad mugshots” signaling that they should beat the men on parts of their body that wouldn’t show up in a mugshot, according to the criminal information.
Officers crept onto the property, surrounding the doors at the side and the back of the house, which lacked security cameras. Then, without a warrant, they kicked the doors down.
The officers shouted orders that the two men complied with, according to the criminal information. Dedmon handcuffed them and — without seeing any evidence of a crime — began to tase them repeatedly. Opdyke kicked Parker in the ribs.
Former Rankin County law enforcement officer Joshua Hartfield, 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
Officer Dedmon asked the men where their drugs were. When Parker and Jenkins replied that they didn’t have drugs, Dedmon shot a bullet into the wall, demanding that they confess.
The officers accused the two men of taking advantage of the white woman who owned the home, according to the criminal information, calling them “n—–,” “monkey” and “boy.”
Former Rankin County law enforcement officer Daniel Opdyke, 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
When the officers searched the home, Opdyke found a dildo in one of the bedrooms, which he gave to Dedmon, who used it to slap the men. Dedmon stuck the sex toy in their mouths and turned Jenkins on his back threatening to anally rape him with it. Dedmon only stopped when he noticed Jenkins had defecated on himself.
Dedmon then began to taunt the men, pouring milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup onto their faces and into their mouths. He poured cooking grease on Parker’s head, while Elward threw eggs at the men.
Jenkins and Parker were forced to strip naked, shower and change their clothes to destroy evidence of the abuse.
Then the two men were beaten with objects around the home — a piece of wood, a kitchen utensil, a metal sword — and tased repeatedly.
McAlpin and Lt. Jeffrey Middleton, who supervised the Goon Squad, stole two rubber bar mats from the home and were about to take a Class A military uniform, when they heard shots ring out, according to the federal criminal information.
The first shot was fired by Dedmon into the yard. The second was fired by Elward, who meant to perform a mock execution, secretly removing a bullet from the chamber of his service pistol before “dry firing” into Jenkin’s mouth. He tried to repeat the intimidation tactic, but this time the weapon fired, tearing a bullet through Jenkin’s tongue and jaw.
Former Rankin County law enforcement officer Jeffrey Middleton 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
Without providing medical attention to Jenkins, who was bleeding on the floor, the officers devised an elaborate cover up. Middleton planted a “throw down” gun he kept in his car in the home, and Dedmon took meth from a previous drug bust, which he neglected to enter into evidence, and later submitted it to the crime, stating that it belonged to Jenkins.
The officers disposed of any shell casings they could find and threw the men’s clothes into the woods behind the house. They stole the hard drive from the home’s surveillance system and later threw it in a creek in Florence. McAlpin and Middleton, the two highest ranking officers, threatened to kill the other deputies if they said a word, according to court records.
Jenkins was taken to the hospital and received life-saving surgeries. He was charged with disorderly conduct, assaulting an officer and drug possession. Parker was taken to jail and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and disorderly conduct. All charges were later dismissed.
Former Rankin County law enforcement officer Hunter Elward, 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
Elward signed an affidavit, claiming Jenkins had shot at him and the other officers filed false police reports and lied to investigators from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to back up Elward’s claims.
Under their federal convictions, Dedmon and Elward each face up to 120 years in prison, plus a life sentence. Opdyke faces up to 100 years; McAlpin, up to 90 years; Hartfield and Middleton, up to 80 years each.
Seth W. Stoughton, law enforcement expert and professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, called the acts “reminiscent of the most blatant racist abuses by police in the Jim Crow and Civil Rights era. This was a lynch mob of officers, pure and simple.”
The environment enabled the Goon Squad to operate, he said. “An investigator knew exactly who to call, and they knew exactly how to communicate to do something like this,” he said. “That’s not spontaneous, it’s the result of the tacit or explicit approval of the supervisors and agency.”
But Sheriff Bryan Bailey, who arrived at the scene an hour and a half after the officers were first dispatched, told reporters that the deputies lied to him.
“I am sick to my stomach,” he told reporters. “I have tried to build a reputation, tried to have a safe county. They have robbed me of all of this.”
Jenkins’ mother, Mary, said the officers “feel comfortable telling the same lie over and over again.”
UPDATE 8/14,2023: This story has been updated to include additional comments.
