A pair of sheriff’s deputies accused of routinely using excessive force on handcuffed people in rural Tennessee would prefer not to face a dozen citizens inside a courtroom.
According to the Knoxville News, Tony Bean, chief deputy of the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office, and his son T.J. Bean, a sergeant at that agency, want a federal judge, not a jury, to hear the evidence in their case and decide whether they are guilty of committing civil rights abuses.
Attorneys for the Beans last week waived their right to a jury trial and instead took the rare step of asking for a bench trial. At a bench trial, a defendant’s fate is left in the hands of one judge who single-handedly determines the admissibility of evidence, hears arguments from both sides and issues a finding of guilty or not guilty.
