Aaron Dean's defense team asks new judge to move trial out of Tarrant County
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) — The defense team for Aaron Dean is making another push to move his murder trial out of Tarrant County.
Attorneys are pointing to repeated comments about Dean from "influential persons" in the days after the former Fort Worth police officer shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson in 2019.
A motion for the change filed late Tuesday, specifically singles out the comments of former city mayor Betsy Price, and former police chief Ed Kraus. They argue their combined statements about Dean's role in the shooting "poisoned" the prospective jury pool for the trial. They also indicated they wanted Price and Kraus to testify on the matter.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Nov. 28 in Tarrant County, with a trial beginning Dec. 5. Final issues ahead of the trial are scheduled to be worked out through Friday of this week.
An earlier attempt to move the trial was denied by the Judge David Hagerman, who was recused from the case in June. At the time, Dean's team argued overwhelming media coverage of the case generated too much publicity to find an impartial jury.
The new strategy to possibly move the trial forced a recess Wednesday morning so prosecutors could review the motion.