LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The attorneys for Brooks Houck, one of the three men charged in connection with the murder of Crystal Rogers, have asked that the 2025 trial be moved out of Bardstown because the massive amount of publicity has tainted potential jurors. 

Houck, Joseph Lawson and Steve Lawson are all scheduled to stand trial on Feb. 10, 2025, in Nelson Circuit Court on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence in the 2015 disappearance of Rogers. It is not clear if they will stand trial together. 

In a motion filed on Thursday, Houck's attorney, Jennifer Henry Jackson, argued that the release of information about the case, including a police interview with Houck, "have resulted in over eight years of unabated media sensationalism that has increased exponentially with the passage of time."

Jackson said Houck is a "pariah" locally and also didn't want the trial to be held in any county in central Kentucky, including Fayette or Jefferson counties. She suggested Boyd County or Daviess County, since they are outside the Louisville and Lexington media markets and are "demographically" similar to Nelson. 

In addition, Jackson argued local area residents are likely aware of "the tragic death" of Tommy Ballard, Crystal Rogers' father, and that prosecutors have said Brooks Houck's brother, Nick Houck, is the primary suspect in his death. 

"The spillover impact of this media coverage regarding the death of Tommy Ballard is unduly and unfairly prejudicial to Brooks and subjected him and his family to further intense public scorn," Jackson wrote along with co-counsel Michael Denbow and Brian Butler.

Ballard was shot and killed in 2016 while hunting on his own property more than a year after Rogers went missing.

As part of her motion, Jackson noted that when Houck was indicted in 2018 on several theft charges, the judge agreed to move the case to Warren County because of the negative publicity Houck received in connection with Rogers' disappearance. 

"The sheer amount of publicity this case has received in Nelson County and the surrounding counties is prejudicial in and of itself, but has also generated so much animus against Brooks that, if venue were not transferred, members of a Nelson County jury would fear backlash if they voted to acquit Mr. Houck," she argued. 

Houck is the primary suspect in Rogers' disappearance.

He was the last person seen with Rogers, his former girlfriend and the mother of his 10-year-old son. He has pleaded not guilty and remains in jail on a $10 million cash bond.

Houck's indictment accused him 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.

In a 2015 interview with police, Houck was asked if anyone would want to hurt Rogers.

"As far as I know, she's a well likeable person," he responded. 

He has repeatedly denied any involvement in Rogers' disappearance.

In the motion, Jackson noted that some people who have spoken out in support of Houck have been targeted in online harassment. 

"Because of the vast amount of media attention this case has gotten, the presumption of innocence no longer applies to Brooks in Nelson County," she wrote. 

Houck's defense attorneys argue that the recordings of the 2023 Nelson County Grand Jury who heard the evidence against Houck show jurors had “almost alarming” knowledge of the case."

Some people have gone as far as to accuse Houck's attorneys of playing a part in Rogers' disappearance, said Jackson, who included several screen shots from several social media posts in her motion. 

The attorneys for Joseph and Steve Lawson have not yet joined the motion to move the trials out of Nelson County. 

Joseph Lawson, 32, pleaded not guilty in September to criminal conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence in the Rogers case. He is not charged with Rogers' murder, but prosecutors instead charged him with conspiracy, meaning they believe he was involved in some fashion with whoever killed Rogers.

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, mutilated, concealed, removed or altered physical evidence." The maximum penalty for that charge is one to five years in prison.

And Lawson's father, Steve Lawson, according to a Dec. 6 Nelson County indictment, agreed to "aid one or more persons in the planning or commission" of the death of another and then "destroyed, mutilated, concealed, removed" or altered physical evidence on July 3 or July 4, 2015, when Rogers disappeared.

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