More than two years after a night of horrors, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker settle with RCSO

by

Michael McEwen

• Published on May 3, 2025 • Comments

Eddie Terrell Parker and his aunt Linda Rawls express their joy at the 40-year prison sentence given to former Rankin County sheriff's deputy Christian Dedmon by a federal judge, Wednesday, March 20, 2024, in Jackson, Miss. Dedmon was sentenced for his part in the racist torture of Parker and Michael Corey Jenkins by a group of white officers who called themselves the “Goon Squad.”
(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker will receive $2.5 million as a result of the beating, torture and sexual assault inflicted upon them by six former law enforcement officers on January 24, 2023.

It comes more than a year after the five former Rankin Sheriff's Deputies and one former Richland officer were sentenced for numerous civil rights abuses in federal court.

Months after the raid, in which one officer shot Michael Jenkins in a mock execution gone wrong, nearly killing him, both he and friend Eddie Parker filed a federal civil suit seeking $400 million in damages from the county.

The case was dropped by U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan on April 30 after the two men reached an agreement with the Sheriff’s Office, and by extension, the Rankin County government.

Sheriff Bryan Bailey, increasingly under public scrutiny following the sentencing of the self-labeled Goon Squad and now multiple investigations into his alleged misuse of RCSO resources and theft of county-owned equipment, was not present for the press conference announcing the settlement.

His legal counsel, attorney Jason Dare, delivered brief remarks on his behalf, saying that they now consider the case between the Rankin Sheriff’s Office and Jenkins and Parker to be closed.

“As with any settlement, the defendants who enter into that agreement do not admit, but specifically deny, any and all liability,” Dare said. “That is the case for this settlement as well.”

Filer image — FILE - Michael Corey Jenkins stands outside Taylor Hill Church in Braxton, Miss., March 18, 2023.
(AP Photo/HG Biggs, File)

During the three-day federal sentencing of the five former Rankin County Sheriff’s Office deputies, including then-fourth in command, former lead investigator Brett McAlpin, both the former officers and prosecutors spoke of how the wanton violence and culture of impunity were required of them by supervisors in the department.

Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker spoke of how McAlpin reminded them of a film depiction of a mob boss, ordering the other officers around and watching the nearly 2 hour long assault with a stolid determination.

The five former RCSO officers and one former Richland officer all pled guilty to both federal and state charges in both the attack and subsequent cover up, avoiding a trial completely due to the deep catalog of evidence federal prosecutors had in hand.

Months later, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced it was launching a pattern and practice investigation into the department.

But only shortly into the transition between the Biden and Trump Administration, the DOJ paused all ongoing Civil Rights litigation and investigations, including in Rankin County.

Dare told reporters that both he and the Sheriff’s Office see the settlement as the end of a painful chapter, although not just for Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Parker, “but also the Rankin County community and the fine, upstanding law enforcement officers who are with the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, who have weathered the storm that has ensued since that day.”

Of the $2.5 million to be paid out, all but $500,000 will be covered by Rankin County’s civil insurance policy, which is capped by state law and its own policy limits. The remaining amount will come from the Sheriff’s budget, which Dare initially said would not impact the county’s taxpayers.

But the portion coming from the department's budget is taxpayer funded, although Dare expects it would come from several different extant line items, would not require additional funds and won't impact services.