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WINSTON-SALEM — A lawsuit alleging that agents with the State Bureau of Investigation manufactured blood evidence to frame a Clemmons dentist in his wife's death should be dismissed based on governmental immunity, the agents' attorneys said in motions filed Tuesday.

Dr. Kirk Alan Turner, the Clemmons dentist acquitted in 2009 in the killing of his estranged wife, filed the lawsuit Nov. 14 in Forsyth Superior Court against Special Agent Gerald Thomas; former Special Agent Duane Deaver; Robin Pendergraft, the former SBI director; and two unidentified SBI supervisors of Thomas and Deaver.

On Tuesday, attorneys for the SBI officials filed motions to dismiss, claiming governmental immunity and claiming that the officials did not violate Turner's constitutional rights. They also claim that Turner's claims are barred because they are based on allegations regarding grand jury testimony and that state law prohibits defendants from disclosing any grand jury testimony.

"These are procedural motions that we anticipated and they will be dealt with in the appropriate fashion," said Turner's attorney, John Vermitsky.

Vermitsky said the lawsuit does not contain any allegations based on grand jury testimony. He declined to comment further.

In 2007, Turner was charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Jennifer Turner. Prosecutors alleged during the trial that Turner used a pocketknife to slash his wife's throat because he was angry over a pending divorce and an alienation-of-affection lawsuit his wife had filed against his girlfriend.

Turner testified that he killed his wife in self-defense after she stabbed him with a large spear.

At the center of the lawsuit's allegations is a large bloodstain found on Turner's T-shirt. The lawsuit alleges that Thomas and Deaver conducted unscientific tests to bolster the prosecution's contention that Turner wiped a bloody knife on the shirt and that he intentionally killed his wife.