KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit charging a police officers’ indifference led to the murder of a teenage girl.

The lawsuit, filed in 2000 in U.S. District Court by Aubrey Phalp’s family, named the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, 10 police officers and four men including her convicted killer, Todd Miller Deal.

It claimed police didn’t believe Phalp, then 17, when she reported on June 23, 1998, that four men either attacked and threatened her or observed the incident.

Her body was pulled from a lake in Miami County that Aug. 5, three days after she disappeared. Deal was convicted of the killing and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for 25 years.

The lawsuit alleged police told the accused attackers Phalp was not credible because she had bipolar disorder and had not been taking her medication regularly.

Phalp’s father, mother and brother contended in the lawsuit she had been denied her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

U.S. District Judge Julie A. Robinson dismissed the claims against all three groups of defendants. There was no trial.

Generally, the lawsuit contended Overland Park didn’t adequately train its officers to deal with people with bipolar disorder.

The ruling states in part:

“Plaintiffs believe that Aubrey’s civil rights would not have been violated and she would not have been killed had Overland Park given its officers more or better training on dealing with mental illness and specifically, bipolar disorder. But even if true, this fact alone does not demonstrate deliberate indifference on the part of Overland Park.”

Robinson also found no evidence was presented that showed Phalp’s bipolar disorder “substantially limited a major life activity,” as required by the federal statute.

Randell Phalp, the victim’s father, said Friday the ruling surprised him.

“This does not put to rest the underlying issues at all,” Randell Phalp said. “The police were aware of my daughter’s mental illness and used that to discriminate against her.”