A jury trial has been set for April 9th, 2018 in Des Moines for a civil lawsuit filed against Marion County Attorney Ed Bull.

The lawsuit stems from a sexting case at Knoxville High School in spring of last year. According to court documents, parents of one of the students involved in the case filed the lawsuit against Bull in September after Bull allegedly threatened to prosecute the student for sexual exploitation of a minor or child pornography if the student did not agree to a pretrial diversion program.

According to Rita Bettis, Legal Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, “many cases will be resolved without having to proceed to a jury trial, especially in cases where there isn’t a dispute about the facts of what happened in a case, and instead, the case comes down to what the law says about the facts.”

In a statement issued in October regarding the lawsuit, Marion County Attorney Ed Bull said, “I take the responsibility of being a prosecutor very seriously. In every case my office prosecutes we consider, among other things, whether a criminal charge is appropriate given all of the circumstances. Whether we are dealing with an adult or a juvenile, we decide whether prosecution will be in the interests of the offender, the victim, and society in general.” Ed Bull’s full statement from October can be viewed below. A phone hearing date of April 5th is the next scheduled hearing for the case.

Marion County Attorney Ed Bull’s full statement on the lawsuit:

“I take the responsibility of being a prosecutor very seriously. In every case my office prosecutes we consider, among other things, whether a criminal charge is appropriate given all of the circumstances. Whether we are dealing with an adult or a juvenile, we decide whether prosecution will be in the interests of the offender, the victim, and society in general. This lawsuit is the result of efforts made by my office to respond to a situation where numerous juveniles had exchanged sexually explicit photographs. Rather than take every juvenile to court I looked for a solution that would help them learn from their mistakes and hopefully prevent their behavior from being repeated, while allowing them to avoid having a criminal or juvenile conviction or even a charge on their record. We will vigorously contest the allegations in this lawsuit. They are without merit. The decision of what should happen next regarding this juvenile will be made without regard to the filing of this lawsuit. I am not going to hold the poor decisions of her parents and her lawyers against her.”