Retrial set for Bull Shoals chief

U.S. to try again after mistrial on excessive force charge

A new trial for Bull Shoals Police Chief Daniel Sutterfield is scheduled to begin Aug. 18 in federal court in Fayetteville.

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U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks has set aside three days for the trial, according to a court order Thursday.

On Saturday, a three-day trial for Sutterfield in U.S. District Court in Harrison ended in a mistrial when a jury couldn't come to a unanimous decision on whether Sutterfield had used excessive force during the July 9, 2013, arrest of Nicholas Dore.

After deliberating for almost eight hours, the jury found Sutterfield innocent of two other charges: falsifying records and conspiring to falsify records.

According to a June 25 superseding indictment, Sutterfield "kicked and stomped" Dore, struck him in the head with a shotgun, threw Dore into a fireplace and wall, and repeatedly shocked him with a stun gun, all while Dore was in handcuffs.

Two Bull Shoals police officers testified during the trial about what they saw during Dore's arrest and Sutterfield's actions while Dore was handcuffed. Sutterfield testified that he did use a stun gun on Dore after he was in handcuffs but denied the other charges.

Dore's arrest stemmed from a police response to a domestic abuse call.

Sutterfield was charged with conspiring with one of the responding officers to falsify the police records, telling him to leave out violent details of the arrest, according to the indictment.

NW News on 07/25/2014

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