Judge issues gag order in Tracy Crews murder trial

Ongoing publicity of the Tracy Crews murder trial led a judge Wednesday to issue a gag order preventing attorneys from speaking with the media about the case.

While issuing his decision, the judge, Andrew Smithson, also accused The Trentonian of “throwing me under the bus for holding a star chamber proceeding” – a reference to a secretive judicial hearing.

Smithson’s remarks were directed at a Trentonian report that said he held multiple closed-door sessions with attorneys to discuss evidentiary issues that have delayed trial testimony.

The report also indicated that Smithson convened a sidebar with attorneys to discuss the undisclosed evidentiary issues. Smithson said he convened the sidebar at the request of defense attorney Steven Lember, William Brown’s attorney.

Because of the gag order, Lember couldn’t address questions about whether he asked for the sidebar. But the Trentonian obtained a 17-page transcript of last week’s proceeding, which shows Lember never requested the sidebar.

Lember appeared frustrated following the proceeding. He and attorney Edward Hesketh, who is representing defendant Nigel Joseph Dawson, were overheard arguing with court staff inside the courtroom.

The transcript also indicated the state had discovered a previously undisclosed police report – the eponymous Terman report after its author, Detective Michael Terman of Trenton Police – that provided a new window into police’s response to the crime and the ongoing investigation.

While the prosecutor, Al Garcia, called the report “very significant,” he has said it didn’t contradict any testimony that has come out at trial.

Defense attorneys contend the report contradicts testimony of police officers who responded to murder scene, on Whittaker Avenue. Lember has said the report also provides a description of suspects that don’t match his client.

Terman, who was once the lead detective in the Crews homicide until around 2010, testified he found the report last week, sitting on a hard drive.

Terman was reassigned to patrol after massive layoffs forced the department to restructure. The case was reassigned in 2011 to another detective, Gary Britton.

Hesketh has accused Britton of sitting on the report, according to a transcript.

But Britton testified on direct examination he couldn’t locate Terman’s report in the case file so he could review it. He said he asked Terman about the report and Terman indicated he had submitted it to a superior for approval.

Britton went to his superior to try to locate the report but was unsuccessful. At that point, he said, he “left it alone.”

“It didn’t exist as far as I was concerned,” Britton said.

In 2013, a detective in the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office asked Britton for a copy of the so-called Terman report. He told the detective he was unable to track
it down and to direct his request to Terman.

“Maybe you’ll have better luck,” he testified telling the detective.

Britton said he “would have loved to read that document” before he prepared his 23-page report, and later, accompanying arrest warrants charging Brown and Dawson with Crews’ murder.

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