Nearly two years after Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker survived hours of a sadistic torture plot conjured up by six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers, the U.S. Justice Department has launched a pattern or practice investigation into Rankin County, and its sheriff’s department.
On behalf of Jenkins and Parker, their attorneys Malik Z. Shabazz and Trent Walker, applauded the Justice Department’s decision to launch the investigation. All of the former officers were sentenced to prison earlier this year after pleading guilty to federal and state charges.
“This is a first, critical step in cleaning up the Sheriff’s Department and holding Rankin County legally accountable for the years of constitutional violations against its citizenry. All of this took place because, despite innumerable warnings, Rankin County and Sheriff [Bryan] Bailey belligerently refused to properly monitor and supervise this rogue department,” Shabazz said in an email to Capital B on Thursday.
While the investigation was not based on a single complaint, Kristen Clarke, the leader of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in her remarks on Thursday that she would be remiss not to mention the January 2023 “horrific violence that five former deputies inflicted” on Jenkins and Parker. A sixth convicted law enforcement officer is a former Richland, Mississippi, K9 officer.
Capital B was the first to report, and interview, Jenkins when he got out of the hospital following surgeries to his tongue and face after suffering a bullet to his mouth that was fired by ex-officer, Hunter Elward. Elward received the maximum sentence of 45 years in prison.
Read More: Mississippi Dad Who Survived Sadistic ‘Goon Squad’ Attack Calls for More Prison Time
“Rankin County’s liability to its citizenry is much bigger than the Goon Squad as individuals,” Shabazz said. “The next step for Rankin County is to make its victims whole, and to hopefully start a new chapter in justice.”
“Since the Goon Squad’s sickening acts came to light, we have received reports of other instances where Rankin deputies overused tasers, entered homes unlawfully, bandied about shocking racial slurs, and deployed dangerous, cruel tactics to assault people in their custody,” Clarke said.
This civil investigation, Clarke said, is “separate and independent from the federal criminal civil rights prosecutions” of the former officers in relation to Jenkins’ near-deadly attack, and the trauma Parker endured.
The evening of Jan. 24, 2023, was a normal winter day for Jenkins and Parker. Unbeknownst to them, a group of law enforcement officers were in a group chat titled “Goon Squad” that plotted “a mission” that would call for “no bad mugshot” — the excessive physical abuse would avoid the suspect’s face.
“I wish I didn’t have to experience the memory of this torture session but I can’t do that either. I can’t erase my memories but I will struggle to live on,” Parker wrote in his victim impact statement when the former law enforcement officers were sentenced in March to federal prison.
As Jenkins was hanging out in Parker’s home in Braxton, Mississippi, the officers burst through the front door. Jenkins and Parker were handcuffed as the officers ransacked and searched the house, allegedly for drugs.
They were repeatedly punched, kicked, slapped, and shocked with stun guns for nearly two hours. Parker and Jenkins said the deputies poured water and milk over their faces while accusing them of dating white women. At one point, one or more of the former officers threatened to use a sex toy to molest both men.
Jenkins and Parker have a pending multimillion dollar lawsuit filed against the six convicted former officers, and the sheriff’s department has a long history of being sued for misconduct.
The officers received sentences ranging from 10 to 45 years in prison.