Justice Department opens civil rights probe into sheriff’s office after torture of 2 Black men

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS The Associated Press

FILE - Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Sept. 12, 2024. The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into a Mississippi sheriff’s department whose officers tortured two Black men in a case that drew condemnation from top U.S. law enforcement officials, including AG Garland. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Jose Luis Magana]

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into a Mississippi sheriff’s department whose officers tortured two Black men in a case that drew condemnation from top U.S. law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The Justice Department will investigate whether the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force and whether it used racially discriminatory policing practices, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said Thursday.

Six white former law enforcement officers pleaded guilty in 2023 to breaking into a home without a warrant and engaging in an hourslong attack on Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, which included beatings, repeated use of Tasers, and assaults with a sex toy before one victim was shot in the mouth.

The officers were sentenced in March, receiving terms of 10 to 40 years.

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Associated Press writer Michael Goldberg contributed to this report.