Story from KTLO: Attorney for Rocky Brian Dodson asking for modified travel restrictions

The attorney representing a former high school principal and head basketball coach at Omaha accused of killing his wife has asked the court to modify travel restrictions placed on his client.

Fifty-two-year-old Rocky Brian Dodson is accused of 2nd degree murder in the death of his 36-year-old wife, Amanda.

Dodson also coached at Mountain Home, Norfork and Cotter and was a principal at Flippin.

EXPANDED TRAVEL REQUEST

Dodson is free on $250,000 bond. He is now prohibited from traveling outside the 14th Judicial District comprised of Baxter, Boone, Marion and Newton Counties.

In a motion filed last week, Dodson’s attorney, Shane Wilkinson of Bentonville, asked that the travel restriction be modified because it was creating problems in maintaining attorney-client contact.

The ability for an attorney “to freely meet with his client is a central component of effective representation and due process,” Wilkinson wrote.

Wilkinson asks the court to modify the current restriction and allow Dodson to travel freely to and from the lawyers’ Bentonville office.

A hearing has been set in the case for July 26.

THE MURDER

Boone County sheriff’s deputies were called to the couple’s residence along Stone Gate Drive in Omaha March 6 where Amanda Dodson’s body was found on the living room floor.

Amanda Christine Dodson was born in Mountain Home and held jobs in the Omaha and Cotter School Districts.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the woman’s body ” displayed severe bruising on the legs, arms and areas of the upper torso.”

Rocky Dodson contacted 911. He claimed he discovered his wife deceased when he woke up about 9 a.m. on March 6.

He told investigators his wife had returned home in the early morning hours of March 6. He said he had let her into the house, put her on a couch and gone to the bedroom.

In the probable cause affidavit, Rocky Dodson paints a somewhat unflattering picture of his wife – telling investigators she was a chronic alcoholic, among other things.

He did admit that he had been the only one in the house with his wife. In a summary of the evidence, an investigator opined that, “Rocky Dodson was the only person present who had the ability to inflict the blow on Amanda Dodson that caused her death.”

MEDICAL EXAMINERS’S REPORT

The woman’s body was sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office. The doctor who conducted the autopsy reported she had “found external bruising and hemorrhaging at the front of the neck, severe edema (swelling) completely through the neck muscles in the area of the Adam’s apple as well as fractured, broken and crushed tracheal cartilage.”

The doctor said in her opinion the blow to the neck would have immediately caused the victim severe distress in that significant breathing problems would have resulted due to a reduction in the intake of oxygen. In addition, the injuries would have “caused the victim to wheeze, cough or gurgle.”

The doctor said anyone present at the scene should have been aware that the victim was in serious distress, but Rocky Dodson did not mention to investigator that he had noted any distress on the part of his wife.

The doctor said, in her professional opinion, the injuries suffered by Amanda Dodson resulted from “blunt force” trauma.

Dodson has entered a not guilty plea to the murder charge.