(Editor's note: this article was updated on the afternoon of May 13, 2025 to include a written statement provided by Steve Gaines on the same date.)
A growing coalition of residents, church leaders and the Rankin County chapter of the NAACP is calling for the immediate resignation of District 4 supervisor Steve Gaines after he labeled the victims of a January 2023 attack by former Rankin Sheriff's Deputies as 'dopers and rapists' without evidence.
His comments came only two days after the Sheriff’s Office and Rankin County reached a $2.5 million settlement with Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, two friends and lifelong residents of rural Rankin County.
The two men filed a civil suit seeking $400 million in damages in mid-2023, particularly to address the physical abuse and torture they were subjected to for nearly two hours in a no-warrant raid that January.
Michael Jenkins, a singer and drummer at church in his now-former life, was shot in the mouth that night by former deputy Hunter Elward in what was intended as a mock execution.
Elward, the first of the six former officers sentenced on a litany of federal charges in March, 2024, actually fired his gun into Jenkins’ mouth twice that night; deciding the first ‘dry-fire’ wasn’t enough, Elward neglected to check his gun and fired a second time, this time with a live round, cutting through Jenkins tongue and shattering his jaw.
The group of officers were under the direction of former RCSO lead investigator Brett McAlpin, then the fourth-highest ranking officer in the department, and promptly handcuffed Michael Jenkins, leaving him to bleed on the living room rug as they conferred on how to best frame the two men.
They decided not only to throw away as much of the physical evidence of the assault as possible, but also to plant a bag of methamphetamine one officer – a narcotics detective – kept on hand for such purposes.
Former nightshift Lieutenant and de facto ‘Goon Squad’ leader Jeffrey Middleton offered his own ‘throw down’ pretext – a BB gun that the officers agreed, combined with the planted drugs, would justify their attack on Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker.
But Steve Gaines, speaking on May 3 to a crowd of influential Rankin Countians including political kingmaker Irl Dean Rhoades and Sheriff Bryan Bailey, said Jenkins and Parker were 'dopers' who 'raped and doped your daughters,' according to an audio recording of the event obtained by Mississippi Today.
Gaines also virtually repeated word for word one of the many racially-charged comments the former officers directed toward Jenkins and Parker that night in 2023 -- referring, again without evidence, to the primarily Black residents of Jackson crossing the Pearl River, which forms the border between the two counties, and into Rankin.
At a community meeting at Mt. Carmel Ministries, a church in Pearl, Rankin County NAACP president Angela English said Gaines’ comments are all too familiar to African Americans in Mississippi.
She also said the fact that both a county supervisor, and the former RCSO officers, voiced the same warning for hypothetical Black residents crossing the Pearl into Rankin shows that attitude pervades the halls of power in the county.
“This goes all the way back to the early 50s and 60s, and even reminds you of Emmett Till and the lynchings and other stuff they did for young black males that they even thought might have been looking at their women,” she said.
“All of these were heinous crimes, and the criminals were sentenced in court and they are serving their time. So what Mr. Gaines should have been praying for was forgiveness and togetherness -- praying that these two young men's lives could get back on track.”
Now more than two years after the no-warrant raid that laid bare decades of ‘Goon Squad’ abuses and impunity, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker settled with the county for only $2.5 million of the initial $400 million they demanded.
Jackson-based attorney Trent Walker, who represents both men, said that amount is by far the largest law-enforcement related settlement in Mississippi history.
But both Jenkins and Parker still bear the scars of the attack that night; Michael, already having undergone multiple surgeries to repair his jaw and tongue, still faces several more, as well as nearly endless pain and a ringing in his right ear.
Eddie’s are less physical than mental; he still struggles to sleep most nights without thinking or having nightmares about the torture and sexual abuse he and his friend suffered together, merely for being in a home they were invited to.
At the same May 3 prayer breakfast, where Sheriff Bailey also thanked the Rankin County Board of Supervisors for “having stood behind me 110%,” Gaines credited the department’s attorney Jason Dare, who negotiated the settlement on the county’s behalf, because he “beat the pants off of” Jenkins and Parker in working the final amount down to $2.5 million.
Angela English, who grew up in Florence and remains a leading voice for police accountability in Rankin, says she has the impression Gaines was somehow treating the settlement as a point of celebration.
“For all of that ignorance and stupidity that you put on display at that prayer breakfast, perhaps you can make out the rest of that money that you think that you all beat them out of when they sue you in court for defamation of character, because that was totally uncalled for,” she said, speaking to Gaines directly.
“With some of the members of Rankin County [government], you have some that think just like him. They think just like him. Andwe want you to do the same thing we asked Brian Bailey to do, and that is to step down. Because there is no way that you can effectively do your job with the kind of racial hatred you have in your heart; since you're an elected official and this is taxpayers' money that's paying your salary, we want you to step down or be fired by the people.”
Before retiring, Gaines previously worked for decades as a federal agent with the Office of the Inspector General, overseeing fraud cases in Mississippi and Louisiana.
When elected as supervisor of Rankin's District 4 in 2015, Gaines largely sold himself as a candidate who had experience rooting out corruption, and that he intended to bring “integrity” to Rankin County.
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story before it ran on May 12. But on the afternoon of May 13, Gaines provided a written statement to MPB News attempting to clarify his remarks, which is printed below, unedited, in its entirety:
"I’ve recently been accused of singling out two individuals during a speech where I spoke about a wide range of issues facing Rankin County. The speech was over 22 minutes long and touched on many topics, including law enforcement and citizen safety. I want to be clear that my comments were not aimed at anyone personally, and I did not name any individuals.
Law enforcement and safety in Rankin County are topics of deep concern to me because much of my career has been dedicated to protecting the safety and wellbeing of our community. I take my role as supervisor very seriously, and I strive to serve each and every Rankin County citizen in my district. If there was any confusion, I want to clarify that my focus—then and now—is supporting the ongoing efforts by law enforcement in Rankin County to keep our community safe and strong."