LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Nelson County man arrested in connection with the 2015 death of Crystal Rogers is paralyzed and bound to a wheelchair.

Joseph Lawson was still in the hospital when he appeared for video arraignment last week. He's charged with conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence. 

A not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf Friday. Rogers' disappearance is now classified as a murder. 

Lawson is being held in the Grayson County Detention Center in a cell for handicapped inmates. The jailer said Lawson is bound to a wheelchair and is being held alone. He has no restrictions on visitation, according to the jailer.

A social media post Lawson made in September 2021 mentions he was hospitalized and paralyzed from the waist down. But he didn't say what happened.

The conspiracy charges against Lawson in the Rogers case imply investigators don't think Lawson acted alone, but nobody else has been publicly charged. The only person ever named as a suspect before now is Brooks Houck, Rogers' boyfriend at the time of her death who was never charged.

The name Steve Lawson — not Joseph Lawson — came up during a police interrogation of Houck days after Rogers disappeared. At the time, Houck told police that Steve Lawson was "somebody that works for me." 

Sources say Steve Lawson is Joseph's dad. In the police interview, Houck calls Steve Lawson, who answers and says to Houck, "I just want to tell you I'm sorry about everything that's going on in your life brother, I got you in my prayers."

"I appreciate you saying that, but I need your help while I got you on the phone," Houck replies. "Do you remember the night you called me really really late, I forgot what you asked me.... can you, can you remember what you asked me or what you were after? I can't remember."

Steve Lawson says, "I sure can. I asked you for numbers for the house."

"Oh for a rental house," Houck says.

Houck owns several properties.

Rogers was last seen during the Fourth of July weekend in 2015. Her car was left running on the side of Bluegrass Parkway with her purse still inside. She's presumed dead, but her body was never found.  Attorneys on both sides are now going through a lot of evidence in the case. 

"It's a very complex case," said Hardin County Commonwealth Attorney Shane Young, who was appointed the special prosecutor in the case. "There's a lot of discovery. I would say somewhere in the area of two terabytes."

Kevin Coleman, Lawson's attorney said, "Obviously I don't know a lot about this case at this point, but I'm sure there's going to be lots to do."

Lawson is scheduled to appear in Nelson Circuit Court on Oct. 26.

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