LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – Six former Mississippi law enforcement officers, all of whom are white, have pleaded guilty to State charges for torturing two Black men in a racist assault in the United States.
All six, brought before Rankin County courtroom in Brandon, Mississippi, have pleaded guilty to a connected Federal civil rights case, Aljazeera reports.
The accused includes, five former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies, Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, and a former Police officer from the city of Richland, Joshua Hartfield. Some of them nicknamed themselves the “Good Squad”.
In January, the officers reportedly entered a house without a warrant, handcuffed and assaulted the two men with stun guns, a sex toy and other objects.
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The officers were said to have mocked the two men with racial slurs in a 90-minute torture session, then devised a cover-up that included planting drugs and a gun, leading to false charges that stood against the victims for months.
Their conspiracy came to light after one of the officers told the sheriff he had lied, leading to confessions from the others. The charges against the victims were not dropped until June, after Federal and State investigators got involved, according to their lawyer.
The charges followed an Associated Press investigation in March that linked some of the officers to at least four violent encounters since 2019, which left two Black men dead.
All six law enforcement officers have agreed to sentences recommended by State prosecutors ranging from five to 30 years, although the judge is not bound by those suggestions.
According to the report, time served for the State convictions will run concurrently with the potentially-longer federal sentences they may receive in November.