CINCINNATTI — The trial began Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati for a Westwood, Ky., man accused in connection with a 2005 South Point bank robbery.

Michael Myers, 28, was arrested June 3 and charged with complicity to bank robbery in the hold up of an Oak Hill Banks branch in South Point. Local authorities arrested Myers after a high-speed car chase shortly after the bank was robbed.

His alleged cohort, Michael Artrip, remains in jail in Florida and is charged in connection with a bank robbery there as well.

Myers’ trial before federal judge S. Arthur Spiegel is expected to continue through Thursday, Lawrence County Sheriff’s Detective Aaron Bollinger said.

On the morning of June 3, 2005, authorities allege Artrip went into the bank, showed a weapon and demanded money. Sheriff’s deputies were alerted and a police chase ensued first on U.S. 52, then State Route 243, and then County Roads 6 and 52 before the

vehicle Artrip and Myers were allegedly riding in careened off an embankment and into a field.

Myers was apprehended as he walked along on State Route 243. The manhunt for Artrip continued for nearly a week until the fellow Kentuckian was arrested in Volusia County, Fla., and accused of robbing a bank there. No trial date has been set for Artrip in regards to the Ohio charges.