Jackson, Mississippi
CNN
—
Brett McAlpin, who was the highest-ranking officer on the scene when six former Mississippi law enforcement officers tortured two Black men in January 2023, was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison Thursday.
Federal prosecutors described the former deputy with the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office as “the one calling the shots” and as a “mafia don” among the six rogue cops who tortured citizens – acts associated with another time in the state of Mississippi.
McAlpin pleaded guilty in August to federal charges of conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice related to the January 24 incident.
McAlpin also pleaded guilty in August to state charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and first-degree obstruction of justice. He awaits sentencing on the state charges.
The men were part of a squad of White Mississippi law enforcement officers who raided a home in Braxton in January 2023 without a warrant, subjected the two Black men – Eddie Parker and Jenkins – to racist vitriol, used Tasers on them after they had already been handcuffed, beat them with various objects and shot Jenkins in the mouth.
McAlpin, his voice shaking, addressed the court but did not look at the victims.
“Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins, I want you to know I’m sorry for what you went through,” he said.
“I’m sorry to your families because I have three boys and I know I would feel the very same, no different than you did, for what happened to Michael and Eddie. What happened was wrong.”
The federal hearings in Jackson will cap an emotional three days during which vivid accounts of the horrifying brutality of a self-styled “Goon Squad” of deputies gripped a packed courtroom.
Parker, in his victim impact statement, said he has been waiting to come face-to-face with McAlpin. “This man right here has given so much grief. He’s taken so many people away from their families.”
Throughout the hearing, McAlpin made no eye contact with the victims or their families. He mostly looked down or straight ahead, occasionally shaking his head.
Parker said he watched the defendant “walk around that house like he was the man.” He mocked McAlpin at one point, saying he could do a better job in law enforcement.
“Your honor … do you think I could be deputized? Do you think I could be a sheriff?” Parker said, eliciting laughter from spectators in the courtroom.
McAlpin’s attorneys said the former officer was not directly involved in the assaults or the shooting, noting that he was in plain clothes the night of the incident and did not have his gun or Taser. But the judge agreed with prosecutors, determining the ex-cop qualified for an aggravating role enhancement in his sentence because he had decision-making authority and recruited accomplices.
“Without McAlpin, the ‘Goon Squad’ would not exist,” a prosecutor said.
Prosecutors said McAlpin inflicted trauma on the citizens of Rankin County for decades, and that they identified nine incidents over the past five years in which he “brutalized people with impunity.”
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