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A Marion County judge has set a February trial date for Steven M. Manson Jr., and Manson’s new attorney has filed a sweeping discovery demand that asks the state to disclose whether police used artificial intelligence to prepare reports in the case.
Circuit Judge Andrew S. Bailey signed a minute and scheduling order on Aug. 19 covering all six of Manson Jr.’s pending cases. A status hearing is set for Nov. 10 at 9:30 a.m., followed by a pretrial hearing Jan. 12 at 9:30 a.m. Jury trial begins Feb. 10 at 8:30 a.m.
The order records that Manson appeared with counsel at an Aug. 18 status hearing in Yellville. It also tolls the speedy trial calculation, which stops the clock the state runs against in bringing a case to trial. The line on the form for rulings made was left blank.
The February setting is the second trial date in the case. The first, set for the week of July 13, was continued after the defense said it had located a witness with possible exculpatory evidence and the state said it wanted to investigate further.
Manson Jr., 35, faces rape and sexual assault charges in case 45CR-25-118, filed after authorities alleged he raped his 10-year-old stepdaughter in November 2025. He faces a separate set of charges in the March 2026 rape of an 18-year-old woman at a County Road 8054 residence near Yellville. He is a registered Level II sex offender with a prior Illinois conviction, and prosecutors have attached a habitual offender enhancement.
The day before Bailey signed the scheduling order, attorney Jack Lofton filed a nine-page motion and request for discovery on Manson’s behalf. The clerk stamped it at 8:17 a.m. on Aug. 18, roughly 70 minutes before the status hearing began. Its certificate of service is dated Aug. 17.
Lofton practices as Lofton Law in Little Rock. He previously worked with Eugene P. Clifford, who represented Manson Jr., his father Steven Lawrence Manson and Dezarae Manson before withdrawing from all three cases in late July. Clifford cited a conflict of interest under Rule 1.7 of the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct.
Lofton’s filing runs 34 numbered paragraphs and reaches well past the standard list of witness names and police reports. It demands material held by the prosecuting attorney, the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory, any drug task force and every law enforcement agency involved.
One paragraph has no obvious counterpart in a routine Arkansas discovery request. It asks the state to disclose any use of artificial intelligence or another automated system to draft, revise, summarize, transcribe, enhance, alter or analyze any police report, arrest report, search warrant affidavit, photograph, recording or transcript in the case.
The paragraph goes further than asking whether such tools were used. It asks the state to name the specific program, identify the person who used it and specify which material was affected.
Another paragraph asks whether investigators used a Stingray, Hailstorm, IMSI catcher or similar cell-site simulator, devices that mimic a cell tower to locate a phone. It requests the application, the court order, operator records, the equipment manual and any nondisclosure agreement attached to the device.
The motion also asks for any Brady, credibility or impeachment list the state keeps on officers who may testify, along with supporting documentation. Such lists track law enforcement witnesses who have been found or alleged to have lied, falsified reports or mishandled evidence.
A separate paragraph asks that if the state runs criminal record, ACIC, NCIC, social media or internet background checks on prospective jurors, the same information go to the defense in time for equal use during jury selection.
Lofton also asks whether any recording in the case once existed but was destroyed, deleted, overwritten or purged. If so, the motion asks for the date, the manner of the loss, the reason and the agency’s retention policy.
The filing does not cover all of Manson Jr.’s cases. Its caption lists five case numbers, while the scheduling order Bailey signed the following day lists six. Case 45CR-25-82 appears on the scheduling order but not on the discovery motion.
Manson Sr. faces charges of conspiracy to commit rape, terroristic threatening and coercion in connection with the March 2026 case. Bailey set his bond at $15,000 cash with an ankle monitor at the Aug. 18 hearing, after revoking a previous bond and ordering him held. His next status hearing is set for Oct. 13.
The Observer will continue following the cases.
