Witness: Slur in Williams case discussed in ‘04

SOMERVILLE, N.J. — Retired NBA star Jayson Williams is closer to learning if a judge will agree that racial bias was involved in a manslaughter case against him seven years ago and that his convictions for covering up the crime should be thrown out.

Testimony wrapped up Wednesday in a hearing before state Superior Court Judge Edward M. Coleman. The judge plans to hear summary arguments from lawyers for both sides Thursday, but has not said when he might rule.

The testimony has included conflicting statements from former staffers of the prosecutor’s office.

Williams was acquitted in 2004 of aggravated manslaughter in the shotgun killing of hired driver Costas “Gus” Christofi at Williams’ central New Jersey estate, but was convicted of covering up the crime.

He was to be retried on a charge of reckless manslaughter when Hunterdon County Prosecutor J. Patrick Barnes independently disclosed in the fall of 2007 that a former captain in his office used a racial slur to describe Williams in 2002 during the investigation into the killing.

Williams’ defense team then raised the claim that racial bias in the prosecutor’s office tainted the prosecution of Williams, and the case should be dismissed. Nearly 18 months of legal wrangling ensued before the New Jersey’s Supreme Court in February ordered prosecutors to turn over all information regarding the slur.

Wednesday, former assistant Hunterdon County prosecutor Marcia Crowe said that then-Capt. William Hunt’s use of the racial slur to describe Williams was discussed at a meeting in the fall of 2004, three years before it was disclosed to Williams’ defense team.

Crowe said that during the meeting when she asked Barnes whether the incident needed to be disclosed, he appeared caught off guard.

“I asked, ‘Was that discoverable?’ and he seemed quite surprised,” she said. “He indicated he never considered it discoverable.”

Crowe testified that shortly after, she and Barnes met with former First Assistant Prosecutor Steven Lember, who had handled Williams’ trial. Lember appeared to already know about the slur, Crowe said. But under cross-examination she said she couldn’t say when he might have learned about it.

Lember testified last week that he couldn’t remember whether he learned about the slur before or after the 2004 trial, while Barnes contradicted that when he testified that Lember knew about it in early 2003.

The defense has sought to show that Lember knew about the slur before the trial, yet allowed Hunt to transport evidence and witnesses during the trial.

Hunt was suspended for five days in 2003 after an internal investigation and resigned from the office in early 2005. Lember resigned in 2007, citing philosophical differences with Barnes.

Also Wednesday, the lawyers agreed to admit a statement from Ken Harding, former chief of detectives with the prosecutor’s office, that Barnes told him about Hunt’s slur in the spring of 2003.

Coleman has already denied the defense’s motion to have the reckless manslaughter count dismissed under double jeopardy, and the retrial is scheduled for January.