McMinn County deputies at no fault in beating incident, jury finds

Arkansas-North Carolina Live Blog
photo Attorney Arthur Knight III, center, walks with his clients Dale Murray, left, and Jonathan Scott, right, Monday as they return to the Joel W. Solomon Federal Building for the afternoon session of a $2 million civil trial in which Jarrett French alleges the McMinn County deputies beat him and broke his left leg during a 2010 traffic stop.

A jury found no fault Tuesday on the part of two McMinn County Sheriff's deputies in an alleged 2010 beating that left an elderly man with a broken leg.

Jarrett French, 72, had sued Dale Murray and Jonathan Scott for $2 million and additional damages. He claimed that the men pulled behind him in his sister's driveway on County Road 84 on Aug. 16, 2010 at about 9 p.m. and beat him without provocation.

Jarrett had alleged that Murray punched him in the face when Jarrett reached for his shirt pocket and then the pair wrestled with him in his Ford Ranger pickup truck before stomping his legs and dragging him to the ground.

Read more in tomorrow's Times Free Press.

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