Huntsville Federal Courthouse.jpg

The federal courthouse in downtown Huntsville. (File photo)

Justin Watson, a former Madison County sheriff's deputy, will receive his sentence in federal court in Huntsville on June 10.

Watson on Wednesday pleaded guilty to lying under oath about the 2012 traffic stop, beating and arrest of Robert Bryant, a handyman from Tennessee.

Justin Watson leaving the federal courthouse in Huntsville on Jan. 20 (Photo by WHNT - News 19)

Watson, who quit the sheriff's department last year, faces a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison, although the agreement with prosecutors calls for 33 to 41 months.

Watson's plea was entered into the court file late Wednesday and the date for his sentencing hearing was announced this morning.

Here is what Watson pleaded to and signed on Wednesday:

The parties agree that, had this case proceeded to trial, the Government would have proved the following facts beyond a reasonable doubt:

During the relevant period, Defendant Justin Watson was a deputy for the Madison County Sheriff's Office in Huntsville, Alabama. One night in July 2012, Defendant Watson, while off-duty, got into a fight with Robert Bryant at Billy's Bar in Hazel Green, Alabama. Over the next several weeks, Defendant Watson searched for Bryant. On the night of August 22, 2012, Defendant Watson, while on duty, parked his patrol car up the street from Billy's Bar and waited. When Robert Bryant left the bar and began driving home, Defendant Watson followed him and pulled him over. Defendant Watson ordered Bryant out of his truck. The men got into a physical altercation. Defendant Watson struck Bryant with his baton, and choked Bryant until Bryant was unconscious. Defendant Watson told the criminal investigator assigned to the case that Bryant had attacked him and that he had acted in self-defense. The criminal investigator charged Bryant with Aggravated Assault on a Police Officer. At Bryant's preliminary hearing, Defendant Watson testified under oath that he had never seen Bryant before the night of the traffic stop, and that he did not previously have an encounter with Bryant at Billy's Bar. Those statements were false, as Defendant Watson then well knew, because Defendant Watson had, in fact, seen Bryant before the night of the traffic stop, and did, in fact, have a previous encounter with Bryant at Billy's Bar. Defendant Watson made those false statements with the intent to prevent the communication, to a federal law enforcement officer, of information relating to the possible commission of a federal criminal civil-rights violation.

The agreement states these facts could be proven in a court of law. Watson's own supervisors in the sheriff's department in late 2012 and again in late 2013 had documented as much.

Watson on Wednesday also waived his right to appeal whatever sentence the court determines.

The federal prosecutors recommended Watson "be awarded an appropriate reduction in offense level for acceptance of responsibility."

The court is not bound by that recommendation, as U.S. District Judge Karen O. Bowdre repeatedly advised Watson during a hearing on Wednesday. Watson will go before Judge Bowdre for sentencing at 9 a.m. on June 10.

He has pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. In exchange for the plea, federal prosecutors dropped four other counts against Watson related to the stop itself, the beating and witness intimidation.

Late Wednesday, federal officials released a statement on the case.

"This deputy, who was sworn to uphold the law, brazenly chose to violate it," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "We cannot, and will not, tolerate police officers who lie under oath to obstruct the pursuit of justice."

Madison County in 2013 dropped the felony assault charges against Bryant and in 2014 settled a lawsuit by Bryant for $625,000.

Watson in August was released and placed on house arrest under the supervision of his wife and his father.