RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. (WLBT) – Some Rankin County residents are describing the comments they accuse a supervisor of making nearly a week ago as racist and demeaning.

Angela English, who serves as the president of the Rankin County Chapter of the NAACP, said the comments were made by District 4 Supervisor Steve Gaines during a prayer breakfast last Saturday.

Mississippi Today was able to provide an audio recording of the alleged comments made by Gaines.

“Good gracious, this is the greatest attorney that I’ve ever had any association with. He beat the pants off of those guys. The dopers, the people that rapes and dopes your daughters. He beat their pants off. We came out of last week with the best settlement. We, we could never even expect to come out of it like that.”

English said Gaines was praising Attorney Jason Dare, who represents the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department.

She said Gaines was applauding Dare for reaching a settlement where the county will only pay $2.5 million.

“He just wanted to let him know how happy he was and how he just did such a great job, while all the while he was putting his foot in his mouth and his pants were dropping below his ankles,” said English.

English did not mix her words during a press conference Friday afternoon, denouncing the comments.

She sent a strong and direct message to the District 4 supervisor.

“We want you to do the same thing that we asked (Sheriff) Bryan Bailey to do, and that is to step down,” English expressed. “There is no way that you can effectively do your job with the kind of racial hatred you have in your heart. Since you are an elected official, and this is taxpayers’ money that’s paying your salary, this is our money paying your salary, we want you to step down.”

The $2.5 million settlement comes after six former Rankin County law enforcement officers, known as the Goon Squad, pleaded guilty to state and federal charges for physically and sexually assaulting Michael Jekins and Eddie Parker in January of 2023.

The six members of the Goon Squad are now serving time behind bars in a federal prison.

They include: Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton, Daniel Opdyke, Hunter Elward, who all worked for the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, and Joshua Hartfield, who worked for the Richland Police Department.

Attorney Malik Z. Shabazz is one of the attorneys representing Jenkins and Parker.

He also called the comments racist and defamatory.

“Rankin County Supervisor Steve Gaines stuck his foot in his big mouth, and he will be held accountable for legally defaming Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker,” Shabazz said in a statement. “As far as the 2.5-million-dollar settlement is concerned, it is no bragging point when Rankin County, on behalf of its ‘Goon Squad’, had to pay out the largest settlement for police abuse in Mississippi history.”

WLBT reached out to Supervisor Gaines about his alleged comments.

We are still waiting to hear back.

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