LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – An attorney for Brooks Houck, who was arrested last week in the 2015 disappearance of Crystal Rogers, has asked a judge to lower Houck's $10 million bond in the murder case to $500,000 with GPS monitoring if he is released.

Brian Butler argued in a motion filed in Nelson Circuit Court on Monday that the current bond amount is "excessive, punitive, and serves no purpose other than to punish Mr. Houck by keeping him incarcerated while this is pending."

Butler noted that Houck has cooperated with investigators since his former girlfriend disappeared, agreed to interviews with police and submitted to a polygraph examination. The polygraph was deemed inconclusive but "did not show deception" when Houck denied wrongdoing relating to Rogers' disappearance, according to the motion.

Butler contends that the $10 million bail is contrary to the constitution and Kentucky legal precedent, arguing bond is not supposed to be used as a punishment but a way to protect people from those deemed dangerous and guarantee defendants show up for court.

Houck has no criminal history, runs a successful local business, has family members in Nelson County, has consistently maintained his innocence and poses a low flight risk, according to the motion.

"The current bond is unconstitutional, and, if it stands, can only send a clear message that our laws and years of precedent can be disregarded if the defendant is sufficiently vilified before ever being charged," Butler wrote in the motion.

Butler is asking Nelson Circuit Court Judge Charles Simms III to lower the bond to $500,000 cash and GPS monitoring with work release if Houck can pay the amount. It is essentially a request that he be put on home incarceration if released. 

"It would be hard to imagine any criminal defendant who has more effectively demonstrated that he in not a flight risk," according to the motion, which noted that Houck has been the main suspect for eight years and the subject of numerous search warrants and media stories as well as signs around town implicating his involvement in Rogers' disappearance.

"Mr. Houck will stay no matter how much or how little collateral is on the line," Butler wrote. "He will stay because Bardstown is his home and he stated from the very beginning that he is not responsible for Ms. Rogers' disappearance."

Butler also argues "there is simply nothing other than rank speculation" suggesting Houck is a danger to the community.

Some Kentucky attorneys have told WDRB they have never seen a bond as high as Houck's, even for people charged with multiple murders.

"It's one of the highest bonds I've seen in my history," long-time Louisville criminal defense attorney Thomas Clay said last week. 

Butler makes that argument in his motion, writing he has practiced law for nearly three decades as both a prosecutor and defense attorney and never "seen or even heard of a bond anywhere close to this one."

He cites several cases from around the state as examples of defendants charged with high-profile crimes, but lower bonds, including Shane Ragland, who was accused of murder years after a University of Kentucky student football player was executed. His bond was set at $1 million.

In Louisville, Ricky Kelly was charged in 2010 with eight counts of murder, among other charges, and his bond was also set at $1 million.

Lloyd Hammond was given a $500,000 bond in Jefferson County in 2016 after being charged with two counts of murder. Brice Rhodes has been awaiting trial in Louisville on three murder charges, lodged in Metro Corrections on a $1 million bond.

Houck's current bond would keep him incarcerated indefinitely, which would be detrimental to his son, family, business, and ability to assist in his own defense, according to the motion.

Houck was arrested Wednesday after being charged with complicity to murder and tampering with physical evidence, according to an indictment. He is lodged in the Hardin County jail, and his arraignment is set for Oct. 5.

The bond motion will be made the same day.

Houck was indicted by a Nelson County grand jury Sept. 20, and the indictment was unsealed Wednesday morning with certain portions redacted.

Rogers was last seen on July 3, 2015. The next day, her car was found on the side of the Bluegrass Parkway with her purse, phone and keys still inside. But there was no sign of the mother of five.

The indictment accuses Houck of "acting alone or in complicity with another" committing the offense of murder of Rogers. He's also charged with tampering when he "destroyed, mutilated, concealed, removed or altered" physical evidence, according to the indictment.

After eight years of investigation, Houck is the second person arrested in Rogers' disappearance. Nelson County resident Joseph L. Lawson pleaded not guilty last month to conspiracy to commit murder in Rogers' case.

The Lawson indictment, which does not mention Rogers by name, says the crime was committed in Nelson County on July 3 and/or July 4, 2015, when Lawson "agreed to aid one or more persons in the planning or commission of the crime or an attempt or solicitation to commit the crime when he, and/or, a co-conspirator intentionally caused the death of another." The maximum sentence for the conspiracy charge is 10-20 years in prison.

In addition, the indictment charges Lawson with complicity to tampering with physical evidence when he "destroyed, mutilates, concealed, removed or alters physical evidence." The maximum penalty for that charge is one to five years in prison.

Attorney Kevin Coleman, who represents Lawson, has declined to discuss specifics of the case.

Over the years, the Houck family farm, the homes of Brooks Houck and his brother, Nick, have been searched multiple times, along with a storage unit belonging to Rogers. In 2021, the driveway of a home built by Houck was ripped up by the FBI. And, most recently, in 2022, the FBI was back at the Houck farm for a five-day search.

Evidence collected during the search was sent to the agency's lab in Quantico, Virginia.

The FBI is also still investigating the death of Rogers' father, Tommy Ballard, who was shot and killed in 2016 while hunting on his own property with his young grandson more than a year after Rogers went missing.

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