Steven Lawson arraigned in court, third suspect in Crystal Rogers case
BARDSTOWN, Ky. (WTVQ) — It’s been 8 years since the disappearance of Crystal Rogers, and present day, three men are facing charges in connection to her case.
Although Rogers went missing on July of 2015, her body has never been recovered and she has been presumed dead.
On Thursday, Steven Lawson the third man arrested in connection to the case making a court appearance via zoom.
“We don’t care how long it takes as long as they prosecute what they’ve got, who they’ve got and get three more,” says, Edward Till Ballard who reflected on the case of his granddaughter Crystal Rogers.
The mother of five was reported missing on July 3rd of 2015.
But as the family continues searching for Crystal, the case moves through the judicial system with three men behind bars.
Steven Lawson, his son Joseph Lawson and Brooks Houck who at the time was Crystal’s boyfriend.
“His involvement is, as I’ve stated before, that, he picked his son up, had a flat tire about a mile mark of 14 on the, the, Bluegrass parkway heading west. He received a phone call from his son that he broke down. He went out there and picked him up and there was a flat tire, picked his son up, drove back to Nelson County, adding Lawson’s attorney, Theodore Lavit, whom on Thursday waived Lawson’s formal arraignment and the formal reading of his indictment.
Lawson entered a plea of not guilty on all charges.
Lavit asking the judge for a bond reduction.
“He was on his own recognizance before and he should be on his own recognizance now. Nothing has changed. And I think I’ve asked for a bond hearing for good cause he’s a low risk as reported by pretrial services. And so, I wanna see where we’re going on the on bond,” said Lavit.
Lavit also spoke on the supposed exchange between authorities and Steven Lawson regarding critical information for immunity, “I have documentation to substantiate that for his, for his testimony, for his cooperation for the times that he has been at post four with me and without me, for the greater part of the year, he was offered immunity and we’re gonna stand on that.”
Meantime, Crystal’s family believes otherwise, ‘I think he was involved 100% from day one. I think he was involved and he knew what was going on. And when they made the phone call that night, when the police officer, John Snow was interviewing Brooks Houck and Steve Lawson called him,” added Ballard.
Lawson will have a bond hearing on January 4th, they are hoping Lawson will make an in person appearance.
He will also have a status hearing on February 8th at 1 p.m.
