Judge, not jury, to decide Naval Academy sexual assault case
The Washington Post reports:
The judge presiding over the sexual assault trial of a former Navy football player sent the jury pool home Friday after the defendant asked the judge to decide the case instead.
Jury selection in the court-martial of Midshipman Joshua Tate of Nashville was scheduled to begin Friday morning at the Washington Navy Yard. But before potential jurors entered the courtroom, Jason Ehrenberg, an attorney for Tate, told the judge, Col. Daniel Daugherty, that Tate had had “a change of heart” and no longer wished to have a jury hear the case.
Prosecutors then asked Daugherty if he could be impartial, Ehrenberg said. The judge said he would be able to set aside any evidence he had already seen and make a judgment based on what is presented at trial.
