WQXE News

Attorneys for Brooks Houck entered a plea of not guilty to all charges during an arraignment hearing today in Nelson Circuit Court. Houck is charged with Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence following his September arrest in the Crystal Rogers investigation.

Discovery in the case is expected to take some time as more than a terabyte of evidence on the case, including the Grand Jury testimony that lead to Houck’s indictment, needs to be reviewed. A pre-trial conference was set for February 8 to check on the status of discovery.

While Special Prosecutor Shane Young believes the case can be ready for trial by summer 2024, Houck’s attorney Brian Butler said given the amount of time that will be needed to review evidence a 2024 trial is unlikely. Butler also said the defense intends to motion to move the trial out of Nelson County.

The court also heard the defense’s motion to reduce Houck’s bond from $10 million to $500,000 with GPS monitoring. Butler said $10 million is “astronomically different” from bonds set for other high-profile homicide cases that have been tried in Kentucky. Butler also said Houck has proven he is not a flight risk or is likely to disobey orders from the court as he has been consistently compliant with law enforcement. Butler also drew attention to the fact that Joseph Lawson, who was also arrested as part of the Rogers investigation, had his bond set at $500,000.

Young said the higher bond is reasonable considering Houck has access to more money than Lawson, saying Lawson’s only possession at the time of his arrest was his truck. Young said a higher bond for a defendant of more means ensures the defendant is more likely to honor the terms of the bond.

Young also said the bond reflects on the actions of Houck’s family, who he says secretly recorded the grand jury proceedings. Young also said his office purchased a gun from Nick Houck, Brooks Houck’s brother and a former officer with the Bardstown Police Department, and they are testing the gun as his office believes it is the weapon used in the murder of Rogers’s father Tommy Ballard.

Judge Charles Simms III took the bond reduction motion and subsequent arguments under submission, and will rule on the motion as quickly as possible.

The family of a Mammoth Cave native killed while held as a prisoner of war in World War II is inviting the public to help welcome him home as he is laid to rest.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency says Private First Class Thomas “Frank” Brooks died at the age of 23 while being held in the Cabanatuan POW Camp in the Philippines in December of 1942. His remains were unable to be identified after the war, but in June of this year Brooks was identified at a DPAA laboratory.

Brooks will be laid to rest in the Hill Grove Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery in Mammoth Cave on October 1, but Brooks’s great-great nephew Jacob Dunn says anybody wanting to pay respects will have an opportunity Thursday evening.

Brooks’s remains are scheduled to arrive at the Louisville airport at 5:30 p.m. 

“Following the ceremony at the airport, we’re going to be driving in a procession from the airport down 31W from Louisville, coming through West Point, Muldraugh, Fort Knox, Radcliff, dipping into Elizabethtown a little bit, all the way down to Joe Prather Highway, then we’re going to take that to I-65 South, and that we’re going to take that the remainder of the way towards the Mammoth Cave, Edmonson County area where he’s from,” Dunn said.

The family is asking anybody in the public willing to participate to line the highways as the procession rolls through.

“Anybody that would love to come out in support, wave flags, please,” Dunn said. “It’s a somber moment, but in a way a celebration that he’s coming home, and he’s been identified, and this story can be put to rest.”

The Patton Funeral Home says a welcome home ceremony will be held Friday at 9:30 a.m. CDT at Edmonson County High School, with military graveside services beginning Sunday at 11 a.m. CDT in the cemetery.

(Photo Credit: Patton Funeral Home)