The Deputies Who Tortured a Mississippi County
Reveal
The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
4.7 • 8K Ratings
🗓️ 22 March 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Andrea Dettore-Murphy first moved to Rankin County, Mississippi, she didn’t believe the stories she heard about how brutal the sheriff’s department could be when pursuing suspected drug crimes.
But in 2018, she learned the hard way that the rumors were true when a group of sheriff’s deputies raided the home of her friend Rick Loveday and beat him relentlessly while she watched.
A few years later, Dettore-Murphy says deputies put her through another haunting incident with her friend Robert Grozier. Dettore-Murphy was just the latest in a long line of people who said they witnessed or experienced torture by a small group of deputies, some of whom called themselves the “Goon Squad.”
For nearly two decades, the deputies roamed Rankin County at night, beating, tasing, and choking suspects in drug crimes until they admitted to buying or selling illegal substances. Their reign of terror continued unabated until 2023, when the deputies were finally exposed.
“Rankin County has always been notorious,” says Garry Curro, one the Goon Squad’s many alleged victims. “They don't follow the laws of the land. They make their own laws.”
This week on Reveal, reporters Brian Howey and Nate Rosenfield with Mississippi Today and the New York Times investigate the Goon Squad, whose members have allegedly tortured at least 22 people since the early 2000s.
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Transcript
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| 0:47.6 | From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, |
| 0:51.1 | this is Reveal. |
| 0:52.7 | I'm Al Leutzen. |
| 0:57.3 | It's the middle of the night in January, |
| 1:04.2 | 2023, and sheriff's deputies surround the home of two black men in Rankin County, Mississippi. |
| 1:08.8 | There's an investigation underway at this hour after a deputy involves shooting in Rankin County. |
| 1:14.2 | On paper, at least, according to the sheriff's department, it was supposed to be a drug bus. |
| 1:20.1 | Investigators tell us during a narcotics investigation, the suspect pointed a gun at the deputies before being shot. |
| 1:29.3 | But questions started to emerge as Michael Jenkins, the man who was shot, and his friend Eddie Parker came forward with their side of the story. The attorneys say this was a racially motivated attack. |
| 1:32.3 | According to attorney Malik Chavez, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker were both subjected to a two-hour torture session. |
| 1:39.3 | Deputies handcuffed, tased, beat, and water-board at the men, all while hurling racial slurs. |
| 1:45.9 | One of the officers put a gun in Jenkins' mouth for a mock execution and pulled the trigger. |
| 1:54.1 | An injury is one thing, but being repeatedly tased and getting shot in the mouth while handcuffed? |
| 2:06.6 | The torture allegations caught the attention of reporters Brian Howie and Nate Rosenfeel. They investigated this story for Mississippi Today and the New York Times. |
... |
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