A former Tennessee sheriff’s deputy accused of raping a 14-year-old girl multiple times over a 20-month period will serve no prison time after striking a plea deal with prosecutors last week.
Brian Beck, 47, will also not have to register as a sex offender – making him the second cop this week to avoid having to do so despite serious sexual assault allegations against him.
Beck had been a Shelby County sheriff’s deputy since 2004 when he was indicted by a grand jury in 2018 on two charges of rape by force or coercion and two counts of sexual battery by an authority figure.
The charges also led to him losing his job. The victim was a family member and the alleged assaults took place when he was off-duty.
But the plea deal allowed him to plead guilty to felony aggravated assault – which is not a sex crime.
Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said it would have been unethical to indict the former deputy on actual sex crime charges.
“Given the totality of evidence, we ethically could not proceed to trial on the indicted offenses. The decision was made in consultation with the victim,” she told local media last week.
However, Weirich did not elaborate on what she meant by the the “totality of evidence” – which evidently was not an issue when she took the case before a grand jury in 2018 and had him indicted.
Since then, Beck’s trial was delayed more than 20 times, frustrating the victim and her family. Prosecutors blamed the delay on the pandemic.
According to a 2021 Action News 5 article:
“It’s five years,” said the victim’s father, speaking anonymously. “I mean, she needs closure.”
The father says the case has been pushed back time and again over the past three years.
A report date, which is a short hearing that would determine if a trial is necessary and needs to be scheduled, was set for May 18, after being reschedule over 20 times, but was pushed back once again to February 28, 2022.
“I mean, there are damages, you know, major damages and unhappiness,” the father said. “She just needs some closure. She just needs to see movement of the ball, that’s what she needs to see.”
In last week’s plea deal, Beck was actually sentenced to four years in prison but the sentence was suspended. He was also placed on three-year probation and will not be allowed to carry a gun or work as a law enforcement officer.
South Florida Rapist Cop Accepts Plea Deal; will not have to Register as Sex Offender
