BARDSTOWN, Ky. (LEX 18) — Attorneys for one of the three men charged in the Crystal Rogers case are asking a judge to lower their client's bond and to place him on house arrest while awaiting trial.
Back in September, Joseph L. Lawson was charged with criminal conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence in connection with Rogers' 2015 disappearance in Nelson County.
Lawson's bond was set at $500,000, but his attorneys say he can't afford it and that the bond is excessive. They're asking the judge to lower it to $50,000 and allow him to wait for his trial on home incarceration.
"Mr. Lawson is not a danger to the community or himself," Lawson's attorneys say in court documents. "He is paraplegic--unable to voluntarily move the lower parts of his body. His movement is constrained to a wheelchair. Simply put, his paraplegia prevents him from even having the ability to harm another. Additionally, if placed on home incarceration, Mr. Lawson’s movements would be monitored 24/7."
Rogers was last seen at her then-boyfriend, Brooks Houck's, home. Weeks after Lawson's arrest, Houck himself was arrested and charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence.
Earlier this month, Lawson's father, Steven, was indicted by a grand jury with criminal conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence.
