SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) -Retired NBA star Jayson Williams was the victim of racial bias and prosecutorial misconduct in the aftermath of a fatal shooting at his New Jersey mansion nearly eight years ago, his attorneys argued in court Monday.
The defense team is seeking to have Williams’ four cover-up convictions overturned, partly because a high-ranking investigator involved in the case used a racial slur in 2002 to describe the former NBA All-Star.
The investigator played a major role in the inquiry into driver Costas Christofi’s death and in pretrial preparation, defense attorneys claim. The slur and a subsequent investigation into it weren’t disclosed to the defense until the fall of 2007, more than three years after the trial.
ggravated assault. He faces a retrial on a reckless manslaughter charge that produced a hung jury at the first trial.
On Monday, defense attorney Christopher Adams told state Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman the defense had “its hands tied behind its back” because it did not know about the investigator’s slur. Fellow attorney Joseph Hayden said Williams’ defense would have fundamentally changed had his lawyers known about it.
Hunterdon County Assistant Prosecutor William McGovern conceded Monday that Williams’ team “was entitled to the information – it should have been handed over,” but argued that it played no role in the jury’s findings. The cover-up convictions relied solely on the testimony of witnesses who were in the room with Williams at the time of the shooting, McGovern said.
Defense attorneys also leveled charges of misconduct at former First Assistant Hunterdon County Prosecutor Steven Lember, who prosecuted the case but has since resigned.
They said Lember handed over testimony from one firearms expert the night before the expert was scheduled to take the stand; the testimony contradicted other expert evidence offered by the state. At the time, Coleman termed the error unintentional but “negligent” and took the unusual step of allowing the defense to reopen its case to re-question the experts.
to prosecute Williams for a separate incident in which he allegedly shot a pet dog over a bet and pointed the shotgun at a friend.
“That is sound exercise of prosecutorial restraint,” McGovern said.
Williams’ attorneys also renewed their motion to have the pending reckless manslaughter count thrown out under double jeopardy since, as they argued, Williams was acquitted of more serious charges at the first trial and the same evidence would be used at a retrial.
McGovern pointed out that the more serious counts require a jury to find a defendant acted knowingly or with indifference, while a reckless manslaughter count does not.
At retrial, Williams could face a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted of the reckless manslaughter count. The four cover-up convictions carry a maximum combined sentence of 13 years, but he would likely face probation to five years if sentenced.
Williams played nine seasons in the NBA with the Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers before retiring in 2000.
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