RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – The two Black men who were tortured by six former law enforcement officers in Rankin County have reached a settlement in their civil case against the sheriff’s office and county.

According to Jason Dare, an attorney for the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, a $2.5 million settlement was reached after a suit was brought by Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker against Rankin County and Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey. Jenkins and Parker initially filed a $400 million civil lawsuit against

the department.

Dare said the county will pay for $500,000 for the resolution, and the county’s insurance will pay its policy of $2 million for the resolution of the case. He said the funding for the resolution will come from the budget of the sheriff’s office, and there will be no tax increase that with impact Rankin County citizens.

Former Rankin County deputies Brett McAlpin, Daniel Opdyke, Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, and Jeffrey Middleton, as well as former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield, were sentenced on state and federal charges in connection to the torture of Jenkins and Parker.

The terror began on January 24, 2023, with a racist call for extrajudicial violence when a white person phoned McAlpin and complained that two Black men were staying with a white woman at a house in Braxton. McAlpin told Deputy Dedmon, who texted a group of white deputies so willing to use excessive force they called themselves “The Goon Squad.”

Once inside, they handcuffed Jenkins and his friend Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces. They forced them to strip naked and shower together to conceal the mess. They mocked the victims with racial slurs and shocked them with stun guns.

After Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth, they devised a coverup that included planting drugs and a gun. False charges stood against Jenkins and Parker for months. Jenkins suffered a lacerated tongue and broken jaw.

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.

Attorneys for several of the deputies have said their clients became ensnared in a culture of corruption that was not only permitted, but encouraged by leaders within the sheriff’s office.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.