Steve Lawson, the defendant in the first of two trials connected to the disappearance of Bardstown mother Crystal Rogers will have his February trial postponed, a Nelson County judge ruled Thursday.
Nelson Circuit Court Judge Charles Simms granted a continuance on his trial with a new date for 9 a.m. on May 27. A pre-trial review is also scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 27.
Lawson’s attorneys previously filed a motion Friday asking for the trial set to begin on Feb. 11 to be pushed back to late summer to give them time to review prosecutorial evidence.
Lawson, who is charged with tampering with physical evidence and conspiracy to commit murder, appointed new counsel after firing his former defense attorney, Theodore Lavit, in August. While Lawson has met with his new attorneys multiple times since then, his new counsel argues they need more time to review the evidence to ensure a full defense.
According to the motion, Darren Wolff and Zach Buckler first represented Lawson as newly appointed counsel during a hearing on Aug. 22, before which they were given an “anomalously high” amount of evidence from prosecutors to review.
Wolff and Buckler both learned shortly after that Lawson had not yet seen this evidence, which caused them “tremendous concern as it related to the upcoming trial date’s feasibility,” the attorneys wrote in the motion.
Lawson’s attorneys also noted in the filing that prosecutors handed over a trove of evidence compiled by federal investigators a few weeks ago. Although prosecutors said much of the evidence is “duplicative” or “irrelevant,” reviewing it in full is essential for providing a “fair and full defense,” they argued.
Simms said Thursday that a request for a late summer trial date wouldn’t be granted, but due to a large amount of discovery in the case, a May extension was realistic.
“The court is concerned that if court forced trial to go forward in February, that if Mr. Lawson was convicted, there certainly could be a claim of ineffective assistance in council based upon the fact that council has only been in the case for that short duration,” Simms said.
Steve Lawson was part of pretrial conferences for the murder of Crystal Rogers in Nelson Circuit Court Thursday. Feb. 8, 2024
Who is being charged in the Crystal Rogers case?
Lawson’s trial is the first of two scheduled to proceed this year.
Lawson’s son, Joseph, is also charged with tampering with physical evidence and conspiracy to commit murder. Brooks Houck faces charges of murder and tampering with physical evidence. All three men have pleaded not guilty.
Crystal Rogers case Who is Brooks Houck, charged with murder of Crystal Rogers?
In November, Simms ruled Houck and Joseph will be tried separately. That trial is set to begin June 24.
Rogers, a 35-year-old mother of five children, went missing around July 3, 2015, from Bardstown. Her car was soon found abandoned along Bluegrass Parkway with her keys, phone and purse inside. While her body has never been found, she is presumed dead by investigators.
Investigators made headway on the high-profile case when Houck, her then-boyfriend, and the Lawsons were arrested separately in 2023.
While the co-defendants are charged in Nelson County, the trials are slated to take place in Warren County because of the case’s notoriety.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Crystal Rogers case: Steve Lawson trial postponed by Nelson judge