LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Nick Houck appeared in a Nelson County courtroom Thursday morning for his arraignment on a perjury charge without an attorney.
Nick Houck was arrested June 4 and charged with perjury. He's the brother of Brooks Houck, the man convicted last year of murdering Crystal Rogers.
At the time of his arrest, Kentucky State Police said Nick Houck "allegedly committed perjury between 2015 and 2023." According to his indictment, he "made a material false statement, which he did not believe, in an official proceeding, while under oath required or authorized by law."
Nick Houck was arrested by Kentucky State Police on June 4, 2026, and charged with perjury. (Photo courtesy of Hardin County Detention Center)
In court Thursday, Nick Houck appeared without an attorney. When his case was called, he told Circuit Court Judge Charles Simms III, who oversaw Brooks Houck's murder trial, that his attorney hadn't arrived and stepped out to call him. When he returned to the courtroom, he told Simms the attorney wanted to "figure out what you guys are getting at before he kind of makes a decision."Â
"Is he your attorney or not?" Simms asked.
"He's not today but, I mean, he's gonna be. That's what I'm saying, we've talked several times and he wants some information on the case to be able to make a decision," Nick Houck responded.
He told Simms he's not sure why he's charged with perjury.
"Yeah, I've been charged with perjury and I have no idea why you guys are charging me with that," he said.Â
"I don't charge people with perjury," Simms said.Â
"I'm just saying the state police or whoever involved," Nick Houck responded.
A prosecutor representing the state told Simms the attorney told them he had not yet been retained. Simms appointed a temporary public defender to stand in as he entered Nick Houck's not guilty plea. He waived his right to have a reading of the indictment and will appear back in court at 9 a.m. July 2, where the court will set the case for a trial and pretrial.
You can watch the exchange between Simms and Nick Houck below:
Nick Houck was arrested June 4 and charged with perjury. He's the brother of Brooks Houck, the man convicted last year of murdering Crystal Rogers.
Sherry Ballard, Rogers' mother, was in court for Nick Houck's arraignment and said she was "shocked" to learn that he didn't have an attorney when he showed up to court Thursday.
"If I was an attorney, I would not touch this case," Ballard said after the court hearing. "I can't understand anyone wanting to defend the Houcks, no one."
She said she's been waiting for the day she would be back in court for another member of the Houck family.
"I've been waiting for that day," she said. "And I really, really pushed for these perjury charges and I'm praying that he's going to be found guilty of this and, if not, he still has to be here. He still had to pay a bond, he still had to do all that and go through that so that's a little bit of justice for my family anyway."
Ballard said Nick Houck "knew exactly what he was doing" when he said he didn't know why he was being charged with perjury.
"I don't understand that family at all," she said. "He's a police officer. He knew exactly what he was doing, he knew exactly what was happening in there."
Last week, prosecutors filed a motion in Nelson Circuit Court asking the court to amend the offense date listed in the indictment, calling the charge a clerical error. The court approved that amendment.Â
The amended court record now specifies the alleged perjury happened between July 15, 2015, and Aug. 16, 2023.
The July 2015 date matches the day Houck was questioned by investigators shortly after Crystal Rogers disappeared.
The August 2023 date falls about a month before a grand jury indicted Houck's brother, Brooks Houck, on charges including complicity to murder and tampering with physical evidence in Rogers' disappearance.
Brooks Houck was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Rogers, who disappeared on July 3, 2015. Her body has never been found.
Nick Houck, a former Bardstown police officer, was fired in 2015 after being accused of interfering in the investigation. During Brooks Houck's murder trial, prosecutors described Nick Houck as an "unindicted co-conspirator."
Investigators have not publicly released what Nick Houck is accused of lying about.
After his arrest, he was booked into the Nelson County Jail and then transferred to the Hardin County Jail where he was released several hours later on a $25,000 bond.Â
Former police chief who fired Nick Houck says arrest 'makes sense'
After Nick Houck's arrest, the former Bardstown police chief who fired him in 2015 said he wasn't surprised by it.
"I felt in my heart all these years they are going to get him on something," former Bardstown Police Chief Rick McCubbin told WDRB.
McCubbin said he worked with Nick Houck in the early years of the investigation into Rogers' disappearance and said, looking back, his lack of cooperation raised concerns.
"When I look back on it, I think, why was I surprised," McCubbin said. "He didn't want to cooperate, so it all makes sense once you step back and remove everything."
McCubbin ultimately terminated Nick Houck from the Bardstown Police Department after he refused what McCubbin described as a direct order to cooperate with investigators.
"I basically told him, 'You're going to sit in that chair, you're going to cooperate and that is a direct order,'" he said. "He failed to do that, and at that time I went to the then-mayor and said, 'He's got to go.'"
McCubbin said he believed Nick Houck's actions interfered with the investigation while Nick Houck was still a police officer.
"I, and most everyone that's been involved with it, believe that he has more to do with it than we see on the surface," McCubbin said.
McCubbin said Nick Houck is now facing the consequences of his own decisions.
"He chose his own path," McCubbin said. "It's nothing I did or the department did. He ultimately chose the path he took and he is paying the price still today."
Crystal Rogers' mother calls Nick Houck 'evil'
Sherry Ballard, Crystal Rogers' mother, said Nick Houck's arrest was good news for her.
"I've been waiting for this day for a long time," Ballard said.
She said a mother's fight for justice never ends.
"I said, I will take what I can get, a day at a time," she said. "And I'm thrilled that he got arrested."
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. Brooks Houck was quickly named the main person of interest because he was the last known person to see her alive when they were at his family farm the night of July 3. However, Brooks Houck was never arrested or charged until September of 2023.
Sherry Ballard believes the perjury charge is tied to her daughter's murder case rather than the investigation into her husband's death.
Tommy Ballard was shot and killed on family property in November 2016, about a year-and-a-half after his daughter disappeared. Prosecutor Shane Young said in court in October of 2023 that Nick Houck is under investigation for a gun he sold to an under cover agent that may have been the gun used to kill Tommy.Â
Years earlier, Nick Houck was suspended from the Bardstown Police Department in September 2015 and fired the following month after he was accused of interfering with the Rogers investigation.
This also isn't the first time Nick Houck has been accused of lying.
Nick Houck, while still a police officer, failed a polygraph examination related to Rogers' disappearance while maintaining he had no involvement in the case.
"Nick Houck as a person, he's not trustworthy," Sherry Ballard said. "He's evil."
She believes Nick Houck is nervous after his most recent arrest.
Rosemary Houck before Nick Houck's arraignment on a perjury charge in Nelson Circuit Court on Thursday, June 18, 2026. (WDRB photo)
"I think this has taken a big toll, as it should," she said. "Because he doesn't know from day-to-day if he's going to be arrested for murder. Or what's around the corner for him."
No additional charges have been filed against him in connection with Rogers' disappearance or Tommy Ballard's death.
But during Brooks Houck's murder trial, prosecutors repeatedly referred to Nick Houck and his mother, Rosemary Houck, as unindicted co-conspirators.Â
"Honestly ... I would love to see the whole family behind bars. The sister, the brother, the mother," Sherry Ballard said.
As the case pushes forward, the painful loss of a daughter and a husband is still very real. But even after Brooks Houck's conviction and Nick Houck's arrest, Sherry Ballard said her mission remains unchanged.
"I can't change the way things are," she said. "I can push. And I will push 'til the day I die to find justice for Tommy and Crystal."
This story may be updated.
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