Trial scheduled in civil suit over Dirksmeyer case

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (AP) - A judge has scheduled a jury trial in a civil lawsuit that challenges the Russellville Police Department's handling of the Nona Dirksmeyer murder investigation.

A trial is scheduled for the week of May 13, 2013, in federal court in Little Rock in Kevin Jones' lawsuit against the city of Russellville and three others. Jones accuses Russellville police detective Mark Frost and former Russellville Police Chief James Bacon of conspiring to target Jones as they were investigating Dirksmeyer's death.

Jones was Dirksmeyer's boyfriend. He was charged in her 2005 murder but eventually acquitted.

Prosecutors later charged Gary Dunn in Dirksmeyer's death, but juries deadlocked twice without reaching a verdict. Dunn is also named in Jones' lawsuit but officials have not been able to locate him to serve him with papers.

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