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Dickson Family Waits for Justice as Frein Trial is Slated for 2017

MILFORD — It looks like a nine-month wait for the trial of accused cop killer Eric Frein in Pike County. Weeks, months, and soon two years will have passe...
eric frein

MILFORD -- It looks like a nine-month wait for the trial of accused cop killer Eric Frein in Pike County.

Weeks, months, and soon two years will have passed since the deadly attack at the Blooming Grove state police barracks.

Corporal Bryon Dickson was killed, Trooper Alex Douglass was badly hurt, and Eric Frein was captured after a lengthy manhunt.

While Frein's death penalty trial looms, his attorney doesn't see any disadvantage to waiting until March 2017 to defend his client in court.

"As time goes by, the story gets a little bit less intense. But the story's still there when it has to be told so I'm not sure it's going to help anybody," said Frein's attorney Michael Weinstein.

There are several pretrial issues to resolve, including finding a jury from outside Pike County, per the judge's order.

Frein sits at the Pike County Correctional Facility at a cost of nearly $80 a day. Payments to his attorneys and defense experts are in the tens of thousands of dollars and now the payments are sealed.

And after nearly two years of waiting, Darla Dickson has learned she and her family will have to wait even longer for justice for her son.

"I don't believe the time that passes will somehow result in a verdict that would not be justly given to Eric Frein," Dickson said.

Dickson shared with us just how busy she and the family have been since Cpl. Dickson was shot and killed outside the barracks, attending services and memorials and court hearings.

Now that a judge has set a trial date of March of 2017, Dickson says it's time for rest and healing.

"When court comes, it's time. We'll be ready to go and do what we need to do."

Legal experts say a death penalty trial more than two years after a murder is not unheard of.  Hugo Selenski's took 12 years to go to trial in Luzerne County.

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