The Justice Department announced today that Justin Watson, 31, a former deputy with the Madison County Sheriff’s Office in Huntsville, Alabama, has pleaded guilty to obstructing a federal investigation into the beating of a local handyman.
According to evidence presented in court, Watson, while off-duty, got into a bar fight with the handyman. Watson searched for the man over the next several weeks, and when he observed the man driving down the highway, Watson pulled him over and ordered him out of his truck. Watson proceeded to strike the man in the face, hit him with a baton and choke him until he was unconscious.
At a later criminal proceeding, Watson knowingly and falsely claimed, under oath, that he had never seen the man before the traffic stop and that he had not gotten into a bar fight with the man.
Watson faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. He will be sentenced at a later date.
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