Ex-New Castle officer's excessive force trial reset for September
NEW CASTLE, Ind. — The U.S. District Court trial of a former New Castle police officer charged with battering arrestees has been rescheduled for September.
In July 2022, Aaron Jason Strong, now 46, was indicted by a federal court grand jury on three counts of "deprivation (of civil rights) under color of law" and a single count of witness tampering.
Federal prosecutors allege Strong physically abused three arrestees.
He is accused of using an expandable baton to strike one man in the head, jaws, arms and back more than 20 times in 2019. In 2017, he is accused of shooting another arrestee in the head at close range with a bean bag shotgun and kicking yet another man in the head.
Strong, who was a lieutenant with the New Castle Police Department, resigned from that position in December 2019.
His trial, to be held in the federal courts building in Indianapolis, had been most recently set to begin on April 29.
However, a request for a continuance was filed after an illness placed Strong's defense attorney in the intensive care unit of a Carmel Hospital.
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt granted the request and rescheduled Strong's trial for Sept. 30.
Strong's co-defendant. Adam Guy, a former reserve deputy with the Henry County Sheriff's Department, is accused of misleading Indiana State Police troopers who were investigating the allegations against Strong.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Excessive force trial for ex-New Castle officer reset for September
