A white former Mississippi sheriff deputy who was a member of a self-described “Goon Squad” was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday after admitting he 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.
Former deputy Christian Lee Dedmon will be sentenced later Wednesday.
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 a January 2023 interaction with Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker 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 began 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 Jenkins and Parker,…
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