Prosecutors in Marshall County have asked a judge to delay the trial for John Cooper, director of the Alabama Department of Transportation, for at least six months.

Cooper was arrested June 12 by the sheriff’s department and charged with harassment, a misdemeanor.

Cooper’s trial in district court is set for Aug. 2.

Related: ALDOT director John Cooper subpoenas Tuberville staffer, Marshall County BOE president in harassment case

Marshall County Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Kromann filed a motion Tuesday asking for the delay. Kromann cited a lawsuit filed July 12 between a company Cooper helped found and Gerald Carter, who brought the criminal charges against Cooper – describing the lawsuit and the criminal case as having “closely related facts.”

District Judge Mitchell Floyd has not yet ruled on the request.

The lawsuit was filed by South Sauty Creek Resort, a corporation founded in 1987 in the small Marshall County town of Langston. Cooper is listed as the resort incorporator, according to records on file with the Alabama Secretary of State. The resort has camp sites and a trailer park, according to the business records.

The lawsuit names Carter – the complainant in the criminal case – as well as Cindy Carter and First Southern State Bank as defendants. At issue, according to the lawsuit, is a property easement that the resort said “is an encroachment over and along its property and constitutes a trespass by the defendants.” Gerald Carter, Cindy Carter and the bank own property immediately east of the resort property, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also said Gerald Carter “has trespassed upon the lands (of the resort) without consent and after warning.”

Carter told AL.com that a confrontation with Cooper over the property dispute is what led to the criminal complaint.

The lawsuit is asking a judge for declaratory relief and to determine that the resort is the rightful over of the land in dispute.

Last week, two individuals joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs – Claude “Eric” Crabtree and Hwaok Ko Crabtree. According to the amended lawsuit, they own property adjacent to Gerald Carter, Cindy Carter and the bank and the defendants have trespassed on the Crabtree property and cleared land for the purpose of providing an entrance and an exit to the Carter property.

The Crabtrees have asked for at least $50,000 as well as a court order blocking the Carter property from being subdivided for sale without the proper permits, which the amended lawsuit maintains have not been secured.