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Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office will recuse itself
BY JOE TYRRELL
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Bolstered by a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling, attorneys for Jayson Williams will file a series of motions pursuing racial bias in the investigation and prosecution of the former NBA star for the 2002 shooting death of a limousine driver.
The Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office will recuse itself "at least" from hearings on the motions, and perhaps from Williams' re-trial on a reckless manslaughter charge, William McGovern, a county assistant prosecutor, told Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman.
As a result, a new trial would not begin until next year on charges stemming from Williams' fatal shooting of driver Costas "Gus" Christofi early on Feb. 14, 2002 in the bedroom of the player's Alexandria mansion.
Coleman pushed the tentative re-trial date back to Jan. 4, "because of the possibility of new attorneys coming into the case. They would need time to get ready."If the Hunterdon prosecutors withdraw from the case entirely, it could be handed over to the state Attorney General's Office or another county's prosecutors.
Williams looked thin and fit in Coleman's Somerville courtroom following an April 27 incident in a Manhattan hotel, where police reportedly used a taser to subdue the distraught former player. He was hospitalized for observation after police reported finding suicide notes and empty pill bottles in his room.
"He's doing well," said one of his attorneys, Joseph Hayden.
Williams did not speak in the courtroom and a gag order precludes the parties from discussing the case outside it. Most of the session was conducted in Coleman's chambers, where discussions failed to untangle the other complications in a high-profile case that already has been to trial once.
In Somerville in April 2004, a jury cleared Williams of the most serious charges but convicted him for a bungled attempt at a cover-up the circumstances of the shooting. The jury deadlocked on a reckless manslaughter charge.
Since then, the prosecutor's office has planned a re-trial on that charge, while defense attorneys have pressed appeals. In February, the state Supreme Court ruled the prosecutor's office must turn over all materials related to a slur allegedly made by William Hunt, who was the prosecutor's former captain of detectives at the time of the case, against Williams, who is of mixed race.
Building on that, Hayden told Coleman that the defense "will use the new evidence to supplement all our motions."
Among other things, the defense team intends to pursue possible bias in the investigation, misconduct by prosecutors and their "erroneous use of peremptory challenges" against some potential black jurors, Hayden said.
McGovern said that once he receives a formal letter from the defense detailing the motions, "we will be pursuing the necessary means to have our office recused from the case."
There have been several shake-ups in the prosecutor's office since the trial, and many employees prominently associated with the case, including Hunt, have left. While Hunterdon Prosecutor J. Patrick Barnes disclosed the slur once he learned of it, he sought to prevent it from being admitted at a re-trial.
Testimony at the first trial proved damaging to the image of Williams, who had been a high school and college star in New York City and a mainstay of the New Jersey Nets before an injury ended his career in 2000. Christofi was a sports fan, and as a reward for his work his boss gave him the assignment of driving Williams and his entourage to a charity and then to a restaurant.
Later, as Williams was giving the group a tour of his palatial mansion, he pulled a shotgun from a rack. It went off while he was holding it. Prosecutors have contended his actions were at best reckless, while the defense suggests the weapon may have malfunctioned.
But witnesses testified the group at times belittled Christofi, who had turned his life around after earlier struggles with alcohol and drugs to counsel others. At 55, he was about to buy his first house.
As the chauffeur laying bleeding to death, Williams wiped down the gun for fingerprints, then jumped into his swimming pool to remove evidence from himself, according to testimony. His brother Victor called 911, but reported Christofi apparently had shot himself.
Jurors also heard how Williams killed a family dog after it allowed a houseguest who was friendly with the animal to drag it onto a porch, costing the player a bet.
But many courtroom observers credited the defense attorneys for mounting a case that highlighted uncertainty about how and why the gun went off.
