Did Becky Lucrezi Olson perjure herself on the stand and later
admit she killed Kane Borough Policeman Steve Jerman, or are the
witnesses who have come forward to testify on her admissions really
spinning a web of lies to help Timothy Williams and discredit
Lucrezi?

Those are an example of the issues set forth in briefs filed by
McKean County District Attorney John Pavlock and Williams’ attorney
Sam Stretton. Williams is seeking a new trial after his 1999
conviction of third-degree murder in the shooting death of Jerman
Feb. 20, 1999.

Other issues include misconduct on both sides and evidence
pointing to whether Williams could have or couldn’t have shot
Jerman.

“It is often said a defendant is entitled to his day in court,”
Pavlock said. “This defendant, in this case, has had day after day
after day. He has had all, and, with all due respect to the court,
even more than the law entitles him to.”

Stretton, on the other hand, believes between Lucrezi’s
statements and witnesses to those statements, there’s enough
evidence to grant Williams a new trial. Stretton has alleged that
Lucrezi, not Williams, actually shot Jerman. Stretton produced a
number of witnesses who have claimed to have heard Olson admit –
and sometimes brag – about shooting Jerman.

“The staggering number of independent witnesses who heard Ms.
Lucrezi admit she was the shooter provides great reliability and
trustworthiness to these admissions,” Stretton said. “The numerous
lies Ms. Lucrezi told after the shooting … enhance the suggestion
that Ms. Lucrezi is the killer.”

Among the lies Lucrezi and Matt Seeley, another passenger in the
vehicle, told after the shooting was that Williams kidnapped them.
They later recanted.

“The testimony is more than an impeachment,” Stretton said of
Lucrezi allegedly admitting she shot Jerman. “The testimony is an
admission that she is the killer, and her trial testimony was
false.”

Stretton has filed numerous Post Conviction Relief Act motions
containing statements from people who claim to have heard Lucrezi
admit to shooting Jerman. The first one to come forward, Marian
Nersinger, has been charged with perjury.

“The District Attorney … appeared to focus primarily on trying
to discredit the witnesses as opposed to seeking the truth,”
Stretton said.

Pavlock noted that Nersinger has a “long and substantial”
relationship with the Williams family. Even after she allegedly
heard Lucrezi’s statements, it took her a while to come
forward.

“What does she do when she allegedly hears Lucrezi, someone she
does not like, make an incriminating statement, a statement she
testified caused her shock and horror? She keeps it completely to
herself for 19 months.”

He raised the same concerns with other witnesses, too.

“… all we have is that Becky Lucrezi allegedly made undetailed
incriminating statements which are not recorded in any fashion, and
which were not even reported for years after they were allegedly
made.”

Pavlock also included a diagram on how the various witnesses
were connected to the Williamses.

Pavlock also said Nersinger’s inconsistent accounts raise the
question of the validity of her testimony, something which
Stretton, who is also defending Nersinger in her perjury charge,
denies.

“It is ludicrous to suggest that Ms. Nersinger is telling a
falsehood, and particularly vindictive to pursue prosecution
against her under these facts,” Stretton said.

Nersinger, who is being treated for breast cancer, answered “I
don’t know/I don’t recall/I don’t remember” 19 times to the defense
and 64 times to the Commonwealth, Pavlock said.

Stretton claims that since this information, along with others’,
came to light after the trial was over, Williams should have a new
trial. Pavlock, on the other hand, says that most of the motions
were filed after the one-year deadline for filing such motions.

Pavlock also questioned testimony and actions by private
investigator Anthony Marceca, who is working on the Williams case
pro bono. The DA questioned how Marceca allegedly told potential
witnesses not to talk with police.

Marceca, who apparently lied to Congress involving an
Independent Counsel report of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan
Association involving then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, has a
credibility issue, Pavlock said.

“It is somewhat ironic that defense counsel has attempted to
vilify Lucrezi for her counsel’s request of use immunity when his
lead investigator was so tied up in such a missive national
immunity issue/case himself,” Pavlock said. “The free wielding
approach without true investigation of the facts has lowered the
credibility of the entire defense investigation to (zero).”

Lucrezi has denied ever admitting to shooting Jerman.

Even the way the shooting played out was brought into question
by both attorneys.

“It would make no sense that Mr. Williams would shoot once and
then turn and allow three bullets shot in his back,” Stretton said.
“But, the injuries to Mr. Williams are consistent with someone else
firing the fatal bullet and Mr. Williams diving for cover.”

He also notes that the gun was pointing toward the passenger
side and not toward Jerman when it was found on Williams’s lap.

While Stretton contends this points to Lucrezi as the shooter,
the DA’s office counters that Jerman was pointing out who killed
him.

“The bullet holes in the defendant evidence that Officer Jerman
returned fire from where it came from, and Officer Jerman was an
excellent marksman.”

“In addition, the discovered bullet holes and entry and exit
wounds in the defendant also indicate that it was highly unlikely,
if not impossible, for Lucrezi to be in the front seat as the
shooter, and, to not have been shot.”

Stretton also claims that the DA’s office and the state police
did not do a thorough job in investigating the crime. One example,
according to Stretton, is the tape in Jerman’s car that was never
logged in as evidence after it showed nothing related to the
shooting after it was viewed by troopers.

“The mishandling of the tape by the District Attorney’s office
will forever leave these questions unanswered,” Stretton said.

However, Pavlock said that since the fact that there’s no
definitive answer as to weather the tape was erased or not
“reflects this was all smoke and mirrors from the start.”

Pavlock also brings up the fact that the possibility of Lucrezi
being the shooter was brought up during the trial.

“The defendant is not entitled to go down the same road that has
already been well traveled even if he now believes he has a
modified, better running vehicle,” the DA said, adding any
statements made to the effect that Lucrezi did the crime are
“inconsistent with physical evidence.”

During the trial, Williams testified he does not remember the
incident since he was too drunk at the time of the shooting and was
subsequently critically injured by shots fired by Jerman.

“In the end, all you mainly have is a bunch of the defendant’s
or his family’s friends and acquaintances trying to come to the
defendant’s rescue and/or enemies of Lucrezi seizing the
opportunity to cause her some grief,” Pavlock said.

But Stretton denies that’s the case.

“These witnesses were not only former schoolmates, but also
independent people who knew (Lucrezi) through drug rehabilitation,
through living with her or through her employment at Arby’s
Restaurant in Erie.”

At one point, her former boss at Arby’s lied about Lucrezi
admitting she shot Jerman because he thought he was helping
her.

Williams, Lucrezi and Seeley were on their way to Ohio when
Jerman pulled Williams over for tailgating. Lucrezi and Seeley
testified they either just had sex – or were about to have sex –
and were putting on their shoes, in the back seat when the gunfire
broke out.

“But the evidence presented in Mr. Williams’ case is far more
than just impeaching testimony,” Stretton said. “The evidence here
is evidence of outright perjury by the Commonwealth’s key witness
and her bragging about it.”