A gang member from Medford has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for armed robbery and conspiracy to commit murder after pleading guilty to both charges.
Joel Badger was one of 31 defendants charged and now convicted following a long-term investigation into violence committed by members of the Bloodhound Brims from August 2021 through February 2024. He was an active member of the violent criminal street organization known as the Bloodhound Brims.
In February 2024, following a long-term investigation led by the District Attorney’s Gang Task Force and the Suffolk County Police Department, 31 members and associates of the Bloodhound Brims were charged in a 103-count indictment covering three long-term conspiracies and 34 separate incidents, including 18 shootings, three armed robberies and the recovery of 12 loaded handguns used in 13 shootings. All 31 defendants have now been convicted.
Specifically, Badger was convicted for his role in a conspiracy to commit murder with fellow Bloodhound Brim gang members from August 2021 through February 2024. During this conspiracy, Badger was an active Bloodhound Brims gang member and committed acts of violence at the direction of higher-ranking gang members to earn status or promotions within the gang. One of those acts of violence was the murder of Kimberly Midgette, a 44-year-old schoolteacher, on April 1, 2023. Midgette was shot and killed by members of the Bloodhound Brims in Hempstead during an incident in which Badger and others mistakenly believed her to be a rival gang member. Badger is currently pending prosecution for the substantive murder charge in Nassau County.
Badger, 20, also pleaded guilty to Robbery in the First Degree, for when he and two others lured an unsuspecting victim to a parking lot in Ridge on September 27, 2023. Once the victim arrived, Badger displayed a firearm and robbed the victim before one of his accomplices slashed the victim with a knife.
On January 12, 2026, Badger pleaded guilty to Conspiracy in the Second Degree, a Class B felony, and Robbery in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony, before Acting Supreme Court Justice Anthony S. Senft, Jr.
On July 8, 2026, Senft sentenced Badger to 22 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision.
“This sentence should send a clear message to all gang members that gang violence will not be tolerated in Suffolk County,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “I promised the people of Suffolk County that we would make sure gang members in our community are held accountable for their actions. I promised that not only would we bring consequential, long-term conspiracy indictments, but we would also follow through on those indictments and ensure that the defendants go to prison for a significant period of time. This case is a perfect example of that.”