Man charged in Crystal Rogers murder says he was promised immunity, wants case dismissed

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- One of three suspects in the Crystal Rogers murder case said he was promised immunity and wants his case dismissed.

Steve Lawson is scheduled to appear in Nelson Circuit Court Thursday morning. His attorney, Ted Lavit, said Lawson cooperated with police and was promised immunity.

Because of that, Lavit argues Lawson's case should be dismissed. But it's unclear whether the judge will make a decision when Lawson appears in court Thursday.

Lawson, his son Joseph Lawson, and Brooks Houck are all accused in the case and are set to go to trial next year.

Houck's attorney, Brian Butler, said last week Steve Lawson "fabricated the entire story" of what happened after Rogers disappeared in 2015, after Lawson was threatened, coerced and promised immunity by investigators.

It was part of a motion Butler field arguing against trying Houck and the Lawsons together instead of separately.

According to court records, Steve Lawson said in a jail phone conversation that he and his son, Joseph, picked up Rogers' vehicle in the Woodlawn subdivision when she disappeared.

It's the same place investigators have dug in a search for her body in recent years.

"Crystal's car was brought to the Thompson's farm by Joey, my client told Joey my client wouldn't want that car out here," Lavit said earlier this month.

Thompson Farm is in an area of Nelson County that investigators searched last December in connection with one of the three unsolved Nelson County murders, but haven't revealed whether they found anything.

The judge in the case is set to hear arguments in July over whether the three suspects will be tried together, and whether the trial should be moved to Hopkinsville.

In April, the the special prosecutor in the case and attorneys for the three men agreed that the trial should be moved from Nelson County to Christian County. They argued there has been too much publicity surrounding Rogers' disappearance to find an unbiased jury in Nelson County.

Rogers was last seen with her boyfriend, Houck, 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 has never been found.

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