Deputies in civil rights probe accused of sexual assault

JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi sheriff’s deputies already beneath investigation for attainable civil rights violations after allegedly putting a gun in a Black man’s mouth and firing it are actually additionally being accused of trying to assault him and a second Black man with a intercourse toy throughout an interrogation, The Associated Press has discovered.

The allegations are contained in a letter to the Justice Department written by Michael Corey Jenkins’ lawyer, who supplied a duplicate to the AP. In it, lawyer Malik Shabazz urges federal prosecutors to file civil rights prices towards the deputies and to open a broader investigation into what he known as the “unconstitutional customs and practices” of all the sheriff’s workplace.

Jenkins has accused six deputies of bursting into a house the place he was visiting a buddy on Jan. 24, placing a gun in his mouth, and firing after almost two hours of “torture.”

“This extreme case of police brutality warrants enforcement of the civil rights criminal laws on the books,” Shabazz stated in an announcement. “Sheriff Bryan Bailey and Rankin County are covering up the truth of what happened on Jan. 24, and all parties must be held accountable.”

In his Monday letter to Kristen Clarke, assistant lawyer normal for civil rights on the Justice Department, Shabazz known as for an inquiry right into a “pattern and practice of police misconduct and police brutality” in Rankin County. Neither the sheriff’s workplace nor an lawyer representing the workplace responded to calls or an emailed checklist of questions in regards to the allegations.

In an announcement, the Justice Department stated the civil rights probe into the Jenkins case is ongoing and declined to remark additional.

PHOTOS: Deputies in civil rights probe accused of sexual assault

An AP investigation revealed in March revealed that a number of Rankin County deputies had been concerned in no less than 4 violent encounters with Black males since 2019 that left two useless and one other with lasting accidents. Two of the lads, Jenkins included, allege that deputies shoved weapons into their mouths throughout separate encounters.

Jenkins and his buddy Eddie Terrell Parker stated on the evening of Jan. 24, six white Rankin County deputies abruptly got here into the house the place Parker was residing and proceeded to handcuff and beat them. They stated the deputies shocked them repeatedly with stun weapons over roughly 90 minutes and, at one level, pressured them to lie on their backs because the deputies poured milk over their faces.

Both Jenkins and Parker additionally knowledgeable brokers with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation that deputies stripped the 2 bare, pressured them to take a bathe collectively, and tried to make use of a intercourse toy on them throughout an hourslong interrogation, in response to the letter, which was accompanied by a photograph of the toy.

Jenkins, who has hassle talking and consuming due to his accidents, stated one of many deputies, who has not been named publicly, fired a gun into his mouth. Medical data he shared with the AP present he was handled for a lacerated tongue and damaged jaw.

Deputies have stated Jenkins was shot after he pointed a gun at them. The Sheriff’s Office has not answered a number of inquiries from the AP asking whether or not a weapon was discovered on the scene. Shabazz has stated his shopper didn’t have a gun.

Jenkins was charged with possessing between 2 and 10 grams of methamphetamine and aggravated assault on a police officer. Parker was charged with two misdemeanors: possession of paraphernalia and disorderly conduct. Agents with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation informed the lads they didn’t anticipate the felony prices towards them to proceed, Shabazz wrote in his letter.

Meanwhile, “No deputy has been disciplined or terminated by Rankin County and all the deputies are still roaming the public at large,” Shabazz wrote.

The Rankin County Sheriff’s Office has not stated whether or not any of the deputies had been quickly positioned on depart following the incident.

A spokesperson for the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation declined to remark, citing an “open and ongoing investigation.”

Police and court docket data obtained by the AP present that a number of deputies who had been accepted to the sheriff’s workplace’s Special Response Team – a tactical unit whose members obtain superior coaching – had been concerned in every of the 4 violent encounters with the Black males.

Such items have drawn scrutiny because the January killing of Tyre Nichols, a Black father who died days after being severely overwhelmed by Black members of a particular police staff in Memphis, Tennessee. Nichols’ dying led to a Justice Department probe of comparable squads nationwide.

Shabazz stated a wider investigation into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office would match into the Justice Department’s previous examinations of different departments across the nation, together with police departments in Ferguson, Missouri and Louisville, Kentucky.

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