Acquitting a Bail Bondsman in Under 30 Minutes

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Acquitting a Bail Bondsman in Under 30 Minutes

How Our Trial Team Turned an Ambiguous Question Into a Not Guilty Verdict

Brian Cole, Sr., a bail bondsman and co-owner of Tennessee Bonding Company, was charged with aggravated perjury over a single answer he gave under oath. The charge carried a felony conviction and the loss of a business he had built over 30 years. For a bondsman whose livelihood depends on court approval to write bonds, the prosecution threatened everything.

The indictment grew out of one answer Mr. Cole gave at a November 2023 hearing on his company’s petition to write bonds in the 26th Judicial District. When his attorney asked whether he had ever “declared bankruptcy,” Mr. Cole answered no. The State contended that answer was false because he had filed for personal bankruptcy years earlier.

The defense maintained that Mr. Cole understood the question to refer to the disclosure required of bondsmen under Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-11-317(c), which applies to a bankruptcy that leaves unsatisfied bond forfeitures. He had never had one. Aggravated perjury requires proof of intent to deceive, and where a question is genuinely ambiguous and the defendant answered the question he understood, the State cannot meet that burden.

Key Facts

Not guilty: The jury acquitted on the aggravated perjury charge.

Under 30 minutes: Deliberation time in Madison County.

Business intact: Mr. Cole returned to the company he built over 30 years.

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The Breakfast Question

The task was to make that distinction land with the jury before the first witness took the stand.

During jury selection, Litson attorney Brent Hannafan asked roughly 40 prospective jurors whether they had eaten breakfast before they came to court. About half said no, hearing it as a question about that morning. He then pointed out that of course they had eaten breakfast at some point in their lives. They had answered honestly, and their answer was still wrong, because he had asked a slightly different question than the one they heard.

The whole jury pool understood the defense before opening statements.

The Resolution

Once both sides rested, the Madison County jury deliberated for less than 30 minutes before returning a verdict of not guilty.

A felony aggravated perjury charge became a not guilty verdict.
A livelihood and a bonding business at risk became a return to running the company.
Trial risk became a jury out less than 30 minutes.

We are glad that Brian can go back to living his life and running the business he has built over 30 years. A jury that comes back in under 30 minutes is sending a message about this prosecution. When the State indicts an innocent person, this is the right result. John Ross Glover and Brent Hannafan tried this case, and their preparation and command of the record are the reason Brian is going home to his family.

Alex Little, Managing Partner, Litson PLLC

What This Outcome Means

A not guilty verdict returned in under 30 minutes reflects a jury that found the State’s case unpersuasive from the start. For Mr. Cole, the acquittal ended the threat of a felony record and preserved the bonding business and reputation he spent 3 decades building. For the defense, it validated a strategy built on a simple truth: an honest answer to an ambiguous question is not perjury.

The Litson Team

Partners Brent Hannafan and John Ross Glover tried the case, combining meticulous preparation and command of the record with a jury selection strategy that put the central defense in front of every juror before opening statements.

Verdict returned April 2026, Madison County, Tennessee.

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