LITTLE ROCK — A federal judge has set the trial in a lawsuit filed by the boyfriend of murder victim Nona Dirksmeyer to start during the week of May 13, 2013.
U.S. District Judge James Moody did not set a specific trial-start date. The lawsuit was filed by Kevin Jones in December against Russellville police detective Mark Frost and former Russellville Police Chief James Bacon. Jones has since added the city of Russellville as a defendant.
The trial had previously been scheduled to begin Feb. 13, 2013.
In 2007, a jury acquitted Jones, now 26, of bludgeoning Dirksmeyer, 19, to death in her Russellville apartment in 2005.
In August 2008, police arrested a different suspect - one of Dirksmeyer’s neighbors, Gary Dunn - in the case.
Dunn was tried twice, and the case ended in mistrials because of hung juries. A judge later dismissed thecharge against Dunn, who also is a defendant in the Jones lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses Bacon and Frost of conspiring to withhold and falsify evidence in an effort to prosecute Jones.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 09/05/2012