Attorneys for the federal government filed a motion Sunday asking a judge to bar the Bull Shoals police chief and his lawyers from including testimony about the criminal record of a man the chief is accused of beating during an arrest a year ago.
The motion asked that the man's prior criminal record be ruled as inadmissible in the trial of Bull Shoals Police Chief Daniel Sutterfield, which is scheduled to begin next week.
According to a superseding indictment, during the July 9, 2013, arrest, Sutterfield "kicked and stomped" Nicholas Dore of Bull Shoals, struck him in the head with the butt of a shotgun, threw Dore into a fireplace and wall, and repeatedly shocked him with a stun gun, all while Dore was in handcuffs.
After an FBI investigation, Sutterfield was charged with depriving Dore of his rights and trying to cover it up by instructing an officer to falsify records by omitting any reference to the use of force against Dore.
On Sunday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner of Fort Smith and Trial Attorney Cindy Chung of Washington, D.C., filed a motion asking the court to rule that Dore's previous legal problems be excluded from testimony and evidence in the trial, which is scheduled to begin next Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Harrison.
"The defense has signaled their intention to call witnesses to testify that N.D. has previously been in domestic disturbances with family members in Mountain Home, Arkansas, in the past," according to the motion.
Those disturbances include a domestic violence arrest in 2006, acts underlying a protection order in 2012 and a misdemeanor conviction for violating the protection order in 2013, according to the motion.
But those things are not admissible under Federal Rules of Evidence, according to the court filing.
"[Dore's] prior violent acts are not probative of a 'pertinent' character trait," wrote Jenner and Chung.
Dore's arrest occurred after a woman filed a domestic violence complaint with the Bull Shoals Police Department against Dore, who was her live-in boyfriend.
Sutterfield is scheduled for arraignment today in federal court in Harrison before U.S. Magistrate James R. Marschewski.
Sutterfield is scheduled for trial next week before U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks.
NW News on 07/08/2014