The afternoon proceedings will be closed to public and press as the defense makes its case to Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves
NEW BRUNSWICK -- Attorneys representing an 18-year-old accused of
killing a local pastor's daughter will try to convince a judge Friday to remove the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office from the case.
The afternoon proceedings, however, will be closed to public and press as the defense makes its case to Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves using information from a set of confidential documents.
The details of the documents in question in the upcoming trial of Jason Molina, who is accused of killing Christine Huh two years ago, or how they related to the murder case were not made public.
A request to remove an entire county prosecutor's office is unusual, according to a former prosecutor. Robert A. Bianchi, former Morris County prosecutor, told NJ Advance Media the motion to push for an entire office to be recused from a case was "very rare."
"You'd have to really have a substantial case detailing a conflict of interest," Bianchi said, speaking hypothetically on the defense's motion.
"Or [the defense] could argue misconduct, saying the office can't be fair because they have vested in the outcome of the case," he said, emphasizing his comments were based on limited public details on the pending motion.
Authorities charged Molina with murder in the fatal stabbing of the daughter of Bong Kee Huh, the senior pastor at Praise Presbyterian Church in the Somerset section of Franklin Township, at the Skyline Towers in New Brunswick on May 10, 2015.
Authorities said Huh was visiting Molina, who was 16-years-old at the time, when she was attacked.
A judge previously ruled to seal the documents, which were requested from the prosecutor's office by Molina's attorney, Steven Altman, and given to the court.
Nieves reviewed the documents, which he previously described as "voluminous," and turned them over to attorneys on both sides, who did not have access to the prosecutor's office records.
Altman then filed a motion to have the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office recuse itself from the case, citing information in the confidential documents.
In response, the assistant prosecutor said she would move for the case to be a closed proceeding due to sensitive nature of the documents, and asked the judge to either lift or modify the seal, which limits the information to the judge and attorneys on the case.
The prosecutor's office later filed a former motion to discuss the sealed records during a closed conference before Nieves rules if the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office can move forward with the case.
Those closed proceedings will be held Friday afternoon at 1:30.
"The issue became whether or not there would be a violation of the sealing order to argue in open court," Altman said in February when he first filed the motion to remove the county prosecutor.
Bianchi, who has more than two decades of experience as a defense attorney, said he's only come across a similar motion once or twice in his career.
During his tenure as a county prosecutor from 2009 to 2013, Bianchi recalled one instance when a defense filed to have his office recused from a murder case, in which he previously represented the son of the man charged.
The court, however, allowed the prosecutor's office to try the case, he said.
If Nieves rules that the prosecutor's office must recuse itself, a prosecutor from an another county would be assigned to the case or the state Attorney General's Office could take the case, although Bianchi noted that would be uncommon.
The trial still could be held in Middlesex County Superior Court, according to Bianchi.
Molina is currently being held on $1 million bail.
Superior Court Judge James F. Hyland ruled in 2015 that Molina would be tried as an adult because of the severity of the charges.
Craig McCarthy may be reached at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig and on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.