GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) - A Kansas jury took less than 15 minutes to find Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir not guilty of a misdemeanor for allegedly slapping a handcuffed man.
The Hutchinson News reported that the verdict Friday followed a three-day trial in a case the sheriff has called a “politically motivated witch hunt” by the county attorney’s office.
Questions to the county attorney’s office were referred to an attorney who was gone for the day.
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The defense attorney told jurors the sheriff slapped the suspect in a propane theft on the back of the head as someone would do a child.
Bellendir says that was a mistake on his part, but did not rise to the level of mistreatment of a confined person.
Jurors watched body cam footage of the slap.
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Information from: The Hutchinson (Kan.) News, http://www.hutchnews.com
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