A white Mississippi deputy now serving 40 years in prison for physically abusing and sexually assaulting citizens, including two Black men while part of a corrupt “Goon Squad” gang of white cops, is now being sued for pulling out his penis and rubbing it on the face and bare buttocks of another man he was arresting. Former Rankin County sheriff’s deputy Christian Dedmon also pulled out his gun and fired a round into the ground near the man’s head as the man was being held down on the ground by other deputies, the federal lawsuit filed Nov. 25 states.  The self-described “Goon Squad” was a criminal gang of Mississippi deputies who tortured, abused, shot and sodomized poor citizens, falsely accusing them of crimes. From left to right, top row: Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon and Hunter Elward. Bottom row: Jeffrey Middleton, Joshua Hartfield and Daniel Opdyke. (Photo: Rankin County Sheriff’s Office) Dedmon then followed the shooting by taking another deputy’s taser and tasering the man in the back three times. Alan Jackson Schmidt, who is white, had been pulled over for an expired registration, according to the lawsuit filed on his behalf by attorney Trent Walker, accusing Dedmon and several other deputies of violating his Fourth and 14th Amendment rights.  ‘We Are Livid!’: Teen Girl Strip-Searched Three Times By Florida High School Staff After Complaining About Racial Harassment, Lawsuit Says Aside from Dedmon, three of the other former deputies listed as defendants in the lawsuit, Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward and Daniel Opdyke, are also serving lengthy prison sentences for their roles in abusing two Black men, Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, in January 2023 as well as for abusing Schmidt in December 2022. Former Rankin County deputies Jeffrey Middleton and Joshua Hatfield, who are also serving prison sentences for their roles in abusing the Black men, are not listed in Schmidt’s lawsuit but they may be one of the seven John Does listed as defendants. Jenkins and Parker were also tortured and sexually abused by the deputies who ordered them to strip naked and stick dildos in their mouths, as well as attempting to thrust the dildo into Jenkins’ anus. The deputies had burst into the home of the Black men without a warrant after a neighbor complained they were staying with a white woman, spending several hours torturing the men. But the white woman was a friend of theirs they had been helping because she was disabled. One deputy also rammed a gun into Jenkins’ mouth while he was handcuffed and fired a single shot, shattering his jaw and lacerating his tongue. Jenkins and Parker were jailed on false drug charges, which were eventually dismissed, and the two Black men received a $2.5 million settlement in May, according to Mississippi Public Broadcasting.  “Me and Eddie in this event were called racist names,” Jenkins wrote in a statement to the judge read by his attorney during the sentencing of the deputies last year. “We were called [n_ggers], we were called monkey, we were called boy, and we were accused of dating white women.” Priscilla Perkins, co-president of the John Vera Mae Perkins Foundation, a nonprofit based in Jackson, Mississippi, that promotes racial reconciliation, told The New York Times in 2024 that the goon squad was carrying on the same tactics used by Mississippi cops during the Jim Crow era. “It’s the hidden shame of Mississippi and America,” she said. “People are still trying to cover it up.” Torturing and Abusing Citizens for 20 Years Schmidt was pulled over on Dec. 4, 2022, for allegedly driving with an expired registration, but was then accused of possessing stolen property. The deputies pulled him out of his car and tortured, beat and sexually assaulted him, trying to get a false confession out of him. “Defendant Dedmon instructed Defendant Elward to force the plaintiff to his knees,” the claim states.  “At that time, Dedmon pulled out his penis and attempted to rub his penis into the face of the plaintiff,” the filing continued. “Later, Defendant Dedmon threatened to have the plaintiff killed in the jail if the plaintiff reported what happened.” Schmidt was taken to jail but never formally charged with a crime. “I thought this was it,” Schmidt told The New York Times last year. “I’m never going to see my family again.” The goon squad, which was what they called themselves, was allowed to operate for two decades, abusing the poor, both white and Black people, according to a 2024 investigation by The New York Times and the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting.  According to The New York Times article: Deputies held people down while punching and kicking them or shocked them repeatedly with Tasers. They shoved gun barrels into people’s mouths. Three people said deputies had waterboarded them until they thought they would suffocate. Five said deputies had told them to move out of the county. Many of the targets teetered on the edge of homelessness and were caught with a few grams of meth or with only drug paraphernalia — a glass pipe or used syringe. Several people sat in jail for days or weeks only to have their charges dropped. Investigative reporters interviewed more than 50 people who said they witnessed or experienced torture by at least 20 Rankin County sheriff’s deputies. What emerged was a pattern of violence that was neither confined to a small group of deputies nor hidden from department leaders. Many of those who said they experienced violence filed lawsuits or formal complaints, detailing their encounters with the department. A few said they had contacted Sheriff Bailey directly, only to be ignored. Schmidt’s lawsuit lists several of these cases that follow a similar pattern where deputies shot, beat, tortured and tasered citizens, many resulting in lawsuits. “The Rankin County Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Bryan Bailey had actual and/or constructive knowledge of a pattern of violent conduct carried out by deputies of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, who had no expectation that they would be disciplined for their unconstitutional behavior,” the claim states. Earlier this year, Atlanta Black Star reported that Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey — who claimed he was unaware of the Goon Squad — was under investigation for using inmates to work on his family farm, enriching himself for 13 years at the cost of taxpayers.  ‘Thought This Was It’: Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ Member Sexually Assaulted Man During Traffic Stop, Then Threatened to Have Him Killed, New Lawsuit Says ...read more read less