NJ prosecutor questioned on why employee who made slur remained on Jayson Williams case

Williams prosecutor questioned on slur by employee

SOMERVILLE, N.J. — A former investigator involved in the Jayson Williams manslaughter case on Tuesday described how he used a racial slur to describe the former NBA star, while his boss explained why he chose not to disclose the incident before Williams’ 2004 trial.

The testimony occurred during a hearing in state Superior Court, where Williams’ defense team is attempting to show that racial bias tainted the investigation and prosecution.

Williams, who retired in 2000 after nine seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets, was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter in 2004 in the shooting two years earlier of hired driver Costas “Gus” Christofi at Williams’ central New Jersey mansion.

He was convicted on four counts of attempting to cover up the crime, and a jury deadlocked on a reckless manslaughter count for which Williams faces a retrial scheduled for January.

Tuesday’s hearing, and another scheduled for Wednesday, were prompted by Hunterdon County Prosecutor J. Patrick Barnes’ disclosure of the racial epithet in 2007, more than three years after the trial.

Barnes said Tuesday he was notified about the slur in early 2003 from an employee who had been in the room when Hunt, who is white, said it in 2002. Barnes said although he reacted with “anger and disappointment,” he chose not to inform the trial judge or Williams’ defense team.

“In all candor, I was not thinking about the case at that time,” Barnes said under questioning from defense attorney Christopher Adams. “I saw it as a management issue.”

“It was your call and you missed it?” Deputy Attorney General Steven Farman asked Barnes under separate questioning.

“Yes,” Barnes replied.

Barnes also testified that former First Assistant Prosecutor Steven Lember, who tried Williams in 2004, was present in 2003 in Barnes’ office when Hunt admitted making the slur.

Lember was scheduled to testify Tuesday afternoon.

Hunt, the highest-ranking investigator in the prosecutor’s office in 2002, said he used the racial epithet to describe Williams, who is black, in front of colleagues because he was “frustrated” after watching Williams handling a firearm on a video that was to be used as evidence and hearing about his alleged treatment of Christofi before the shooting.

“I realized I shouldn’t have said that, and it was wrong,” Hunt said on the witness stand Tuesday.

While prosecutors have claimed that Hunt played a minor role in the investigation and didn’t testify at the first trial, defense attorneys noted that Hunt was one of the first officers at the scene and later was responsible for transporting evidence and handling witnesses.