LITTLE ROCK — A Pulaski County judge on Thursday ordered a special prosecutor to release transcripts and documentary evidence from at least two murder trials in the 2005 slaying of Nona Dirksmeyer to her boyfriend Kevin Jones.
Jones, who was acquitted in 2007 of her death, sued special prosecutor Jack McQuary in March in an attempt to get documents related to his owncase and to the case brought against a subsequent murder defendant, Gary Dunn.
At the time, Dunn, 31,was awaiting a third capital murder trial in Clarksville in Dirksmeyer’s death. His first two trials ended with hung juries. But on April 5, Circuit Judge Bill Pearson dismissed the charge and ordered Dunn released from jail. The dismissal came at the request of McQuary, who said investigators have been unable to find a possible new and key witness.
Ruling on Jones’ lawsuit, which cited the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, Circuit Judge James M. “Jay” Moody Jr. found that Jones was entitled to copies of testimony and documentary evidence introduced in the trials of Jones and Dunn.
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The judge said McQuary must provide copies to Jones “of those records that are currently in his possession that are contained in the public record of the criminal trials referenced in” Jones’ request.
The decision noted that Jones’ lawsuit had referred to his own case and both of Dunn’s trials, but McQuary said Thursday that the transcript for the second Dunn trial was not in his possession.
Moody also ruled that, because the investigation of Dirksmeyer’s death “is open and ongoing,” Jones is not entitled to records that were not already a part of the publicrecord from the trials.
Contacted Thursday, Jones’ attorney in the civil case, Charles Sidney Gibson of Dermott, said, “I don’t anticipate appealing.”
Dirksmeyer, a 19-year-old Arkansas Tech University student, was found dead in her Russellville apartment Dec. 15, 2005. She had been bludgeoned with a floor lamp. The killer also had punched her, strangled her and tried to cut her throat, trial testimony indicated.
In his April order, Pearson, who presided over both of Dunn’s trials in Johnson County Circuit Court, said a gag order remained in effect.
Pearson wrote: “The parties, their attorneys, the attorneys’ employees, agents and consultants, witnesses in any prior trials’ concerning the homicide of Nona Dirksmeyer, and officers of the Court to include law enforcement agencies, are hereby prohibited from making public comment (to include postings on the internet), until disposition of the” Dirksmeyer investigation.
Yet Ken Gallant, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’sW.H. Bowen School of Law, said Thursday that he found the portion of the gag order as it relates to Jones “questionable.”
For Jones, now 25, Gallant said, “the case is over.”
If Jones sought to have his portion of the gag order overturned, “I would think that there would be good reason to grant that, that he should be allowed to talk if he wants to. ... I find it difficult that he shouldn’t be able to say things.
“Gary Dunn is in a very different situation,” Gallant continued. “He needs to maintain his right to silence. ... It’s a bit closer [call] with him because ... the case may be continuing.” Still, Dunn should be allowed to petition the court to let him talk if he wishes, Gallant said.
Pearson’s order does include this statement: “In the event any of the enjoined individuals seek to make public comment, that individual shall petition the Court for approval to make such comment.”
Gallant said that if he were Dunn’s attorney, he would tell him, “‘Do not say anything to the press because remember that this was dismissed without prejudice, so they could come back and try you again and anything that you say in the press will be used against you.’”
As for keeping previously undisclosed evidence secret for now, Gallant said, “Everything ... about preserving the evidence in the case is absolutely fine. I don’t see any problem with protecting an ongoing investigation. To me, it’s the same for that part of the case as it would be the day after the crime.”
Further, Gallant said the judge clearly can prohibit “a lot of people ... particularly the investigators and thepeople with the prosecution” from talking to the news media about the case.
But he said, “It’s a different situation for people who are not parties to the case anymore.”
Pearson has set another hearing concerning the ongoing investigation for Oct. 3 in Russellville. He then is expected to reconsider his gag order.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/13/2011