Brooks Houck, main suspect in Crystal Rogers’ murder, pleads not guilty in court appearance

Eight years after he was named the primary suspect in Crystal Rogers’ disappearance, the Bardstown man accused of murdering the mother-of-five pleaded not guilty in criminal court Thursday afternoon.

Brooks Houck, 41, was arrested on Sept. 27 after an indictment was handed down by a Nelson County Circuit Court grand jury charging him with murder and evidence tampering in the disappearance of Rogers, his former girlfriend. Thursday marked his first court appearance in the case.

Houck attended the hearing virtually from the Hardin County Detention Center, where he is being held on a $10 million. His attorney, Brian Butler of Louisville, entered the not guilty plea on Houck’s behalf.

Nelson Circuit Judge Charles Simms III did not set a trial date for the case. Butler said he could not be prepared for a summer 2024 trial, while prosecutor Shane Young said they could be ready. Several co-counsels for Houck and the prosecution were present during the hearing.

“(Young) is so far ahead of me because he has been investigating the case and presented it to the grand jury,” said Butler.

Houck’s next court date, a pretrial conference, was set for Feb. 8, 2024.

The amount of discovery in this case is over a terabyte. The prosecution provided Butler and co-counsel over 500 gigabytes of discovery. Evidence includes video and audio recordings and paper documents that the prosecution is in the process of redacting.

Many members of the Rogers family showed up to Thursday’s hearing, occupying half of the audience gallery.

Houck’s $10 million bond

Butler filed a motion for a bond reduction last week. He requested that a judge consider lowering his bond from $10 million to $500,000 and cited the current bond was “excessive and punitive.”

“I have practiced law for 28 years and I have never heard of a bond coming close to this,” Butler said.

Young has never asked for a $10 million bond in a previous case, he said, and added that some jurors who heard the grand jury testimony thought Houck’s bond should be doubled.

A $500,000 bond was too low for someone who’s a multi-millionaire, Young said. A $10 million bond was fair.

Judge Simms ultimately did not address Houck’s bond, keeping it set at $10 million.

Houck’s risk of not appearing for a future court date was classified as low, according to a pretrial service report. He has one point on his record for not appearing at a 2012 traffic case hearing.

The appearance probability for Houck is 87% and the likelihood of him remaining arrest-free is 96%, according to the report. The report also said Houck is not likely to get into trouble while the case is pending.

Due to intense media coverage of the case, Butler said his client has known he could be arrested at any time, yet remained in Nelson County — demonstrating he will not run.

“This isn’t as simple as saying he isn’t a flight risk. He hasn’t fled from anything before, but he has known forever that people are saying bad things about him, but here he has stayed,” Butler said before Judge Simms.

In the motion, Butler said Houck had been cooperative with law enforcement since the investigation began, and that his character had been assassinated by media coverage of the investigation. He described Houck as a family man, and successful business owner with no prior criminal convictions on his record.

“He has as strong ties to this community as anyone can have,” Butler said.

Houck family accused of misconduct

During the arraignment, Young alleged members of Houck’s family recorded the grand jury proceedings, which is strictly prohibited.

The Houck family declined to comment on the accusations after the arraignment.

Grand jury proceedings are done in secret. The private sessions only include the 12 randomly selected jurors, the commonwealth’s attorney, witnesses and a stenographer. Judges or members of the defense team are not present for testimony or deliberations.

Who is Brooks Houck?

Houck was named the sole suspect in October 2015. Rogers is presumed to be dead, and her body has not been found. Investigators believed Houck was the last person to see Rogers alive, on July 3 or July 4, 2015. She was reported missing by her mother July 5, 2015.

Since the beginning, Houck has maintained his innocence in the few public comments he’s made.

Houck is a Bardstown native and a prominent business owner in the area. He runs three separate construction companies: Houck Rentals, Select Quality Homes and Central Kentucky Rentals LLC.

Before Houck’s indictment, 32-year-old Joseph Lawson was arrested in connection to Roger’s case. According to Lawson’s indictment, he was charged with criminal conspiracy to commit murder and complicity to tampering with physical evidence

The Herald-Leader requested investigative documents for Lawson’s case from the FBI through an open records request. The FBI cited Lawson as a “third party individual” and could neither “confirm nor deny” that such documents existed.

“The mere acknowledgment of the existence of FBI records on third party individuals could be reasonably expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” Michael Seidel, the section chief of the information management division wrote in a letter response.