Sentencing has concluded for the six white former officers in the US state of Mississippi who pleaded guilty to breaking into a home without a warrant and torturing two black men.
High-ranking former deputy Brett McAlpin, 53, was the fifth former law enforcement officer sentenced this week by US District Judge Tom Lee after pleading guilty to the attack, which involved beatings, repeated uses of stun guns and assaults with a sex toy before one of the victims was shot in the mouth.
The final member of the group, 32-year-old former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield, was given a sentence of about 10 years on Thursday afternoon.
McAlpin on Thursday wore a jumpsuit turned inside out to conceal the name of the jail where he is detained, and he nodded to his family in the courtroom.
He offered an apology before the judge sentenced him.
“This was all wrong, very wrong.
“It’s not how people should treat each other and even more so, it’s not how law enforcement should treat people,” said McAlpin, who did not look at the victims as he spoke.
“I’m really sorry for being a part of something that made law enforcement look so bad.”
Mr Lee sentenced Christian Dedmon, 29, to 40 years and Daniel Opdyke, 28, to 17.5 years on Wednesday.
He gave about 20 years to Hunter Elward, 31, and 17.5 years to Jeffrey Middleton, 46, on Tuesday.
All but Hartfield served with the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office outside Mississippi’s capital city, Jackson, where some called themselves The Goon Squad.
McAlpin was the fourth highest-ranking officer at the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, a probation officer said in court.
Arguing for a lengthy sentence, federal prosecutor Christopher Perras said McAlpin was not technically a member of the Goon Squad but “moulded the men into the goons they became”.
“How did these deputies learn to treat another human being this way? Your honour, the answer is sitting right there,” Mr Perras said as he turned and pointed at McAlpin.
In March 2023, months before federal prosecutors announced charges in August, an investigation by The Associated Press linked some of the deputies to at least four violent encounters with black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.
The officers invented false charges against the victims, planting a gun and drugs at the scene of their crime, and stuck to their cover story for months until finally admitting that they tortured Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker.
Elward admitted to shoving a gun into Mr Jenkins’ mouth and firing it in what federal prosecutors said was meant to be a “mock execution”
In a statement read by his lawyer, Mr Jenkins said he “felt like a slave” and was “left to die like a dog”.
“If those who are in charge of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office can participate in these kinds of torture, God help us all. And God help Rankin County,” Mr Jenkins said.
Mr Lee handed down prison terms near the top of the sentencing guidelines for all of the culprits, except for Hartfield.
