SMETHPORT – Defense attorney Sam Stretton asked for, and was
denied, a mistrial Tuesday morning after former McKean County
District Attorney Michele Alfieri said during her testimony that
the girl who the defendants have allegedly heard say she shot a
police officer passed a polygraph test.

Alfieri took the stand in the trial of Marian Kay Nersinger of
Holley, N.Y., and Michelle Nelson of Scio, N.Y. Both are charged
with perjury, a third-degree felony, for allegedly lying at
different occasions during Post Conviction Relief Act hearings for
convicted cop-killer Timothy Williams.

Alfieri, who now serves as director of legal affairs and human
resources for the county, prosecuted Williams, who was convicted of
third-degree murder in the death of Kane Borough Police Officer
Steve Jerman in 1999.

McKean County Judge John Yoder denied Stretton’s motion for a
mistrial in the first day of testimony in the trial.

While on cross-examination by Stretton, Alfieri said that Becky
Lucrezi-Olson, a key witness in the Williams trial, had passed a
polygraph test. Yoder then cautioned jurors to disregard any
reference to that assertion. While the polygraph test couldn’t be
mentioned, Stretton did produce a letter from Alfieri granting
Lucrezi-Olson immunity.

Lucrezi-Olson was a passenger in the car driven by Williams the
morning Jerman was killed.

Under questioning by District Attorney John Pavlock, Alfieri
explained that she granted Lucrezi-Olson use immunity which is more
limited than transactional immunity, which is like “carte blanche”
immunity.

Under use immunity, Lucrezi-Olson could not be prosecuted by
anything she said, but could still be prosecuted by evidence
brought forth from someone else.

“You give use immunity because you need it,” she said. “You
can’t get the evidence another way.”

She added that she had a “high level of confidence” that what
Lucrezi-Olson was saying was truthful.

Alfieri said she remembers when Julie Comes, the office manager
in the DA’s office, told her Nersinger called to notify the DA’s
office she heard Lucrezi-Olson admit to shooting “the cop.”

“Those are their words. I don’t mean to be disrespectful,”
Alfieri said of referring to Jerman as “the cop.”

“It was very alarming to hear,” Alfieri said. “I directed her to
contact Trooper (Scott) Nelson.” Nelson was the investigating
officer in the Williams case.

But at this point, Alfieri said, all they had was a phone call
from someone they didn’t know. That is why Stretton was never told
of Nersinger at that time, Alfieri said.

“At this point all we knew was this person called in,” she said.
“It was just the beginning of the investigation.”

“This is very serious,” Alfieri said of the case. “We didn’t
want to go off willy-nilly based on a phone interview.”

Comes said the caller identified herself as Marion Nersinger and
said Lucrezi-Olson had been “running her mouth” that she shot
Jerman and she was glad Williams was taking the fall for it.

Nersinger said, according to Comes, that the gun was in the
backseat with her and Matt Seeley. When Jerman turned around, she
shot him. She also apparently said that she was mad at Williams for
pulling over in the first place.

Stretton questioned both Comes and Trooper Nelson about why he
was never notified that another witness had come forward, but was
told it was not the usual procedure.

Whenever a witness like this comes forward, the protocol would
be to notify the investigating police agency to proceed, Alfieri
said.

When Nersinger didn’t come back within the year, the interview
was never pursued, Trooper Nelson said. A face-to-face interview is
preferred since the interviewer can see the person’s body language
and expressions, he said. In the end, Stretton stressed that he was
not notified of Nersinger.

“I never knew I had to,” Trooper Nelson said of notifying
Stretton. “I didn’t know I had to send you anything … I never sent
you anything in this entire case.”

Trooper Gary Stuckey was on the stand for most of the afternoon,
as he explained that during several interviews, Nelson and
Nersinger had told varying versions of what they claimed to have
heard Lucrezi-Olson say.

On cross-examination, Stretton spent much time questioning
Stuckey on his interrogation techniques, his follow-up on
information and when he made up his mind the charge the two women
with perjury.

Stuckey testified that Nersinger had originally told him that
she has walked by Lucrezi-Olson near the pay phone at Sheetz in
Coudersport and heard her tell Michelle Crawford and one of the
Cheyenne sisters that she had shot Jerman.

Nersinger was not sure of the Cheyenne woman’s first name,
Stuckey said; all three of those women, now living in various
places were in court Tuesday to testify that they had never heard
Lucrezi-Olson say anything about the Jerman shooting.

When he called Crawford, Stuckey said, she told him she knew
nothing of the case – it was from Crawford that the trooper got
Michelle Nelson’s name.

When he called Nelson, she first said she had heard rumors, but
had not heard Lucrezi-Olson say anything like that she had shot
Jerman- “if I had I’d have knocked her on her ass,” he quoted
Nelson as saying.

Stuckey read much of his testimony from notes he made at the
time, something Stretton made much of in his vigorous
cross-examination.

When he interviewed Nersinger, she told him that she did not
believe Williams had shot Jerman because “Tim wouldn’t do that kind
of thing,” and said her sister had heard Lucrezi-Olson say she had
done it.

There was no mention of Sheetz or a pay phone in that story,
Stuckey said.

When he asked her how she came in to contact with the defense,
Stuckey said, Nersinger had replied that “God showed them the
way.”

She also said that she had waited four years to come forward
with her story because she did not want to get involved.

In his cross-examination of the trooper, Stretton asked a number
of times why Stuckey had not shown Nelson the notes he had taken
when he talked to her on the phone and confronted her with the
differences.

Stuckey replied that he never showed people he interviewed
previous notes – “that’s not the way I do things.”

The defense attorney was also critical of Stuckey for never
having specifically confronted either woman about alleged
differences between what they told him a what the defense
investigator reported they said.

Stuckey and Stretton argued over whether Nelson’s saying that
she heard Lucrezi-Olson brag about shooting Jerman and heard her
say that “Tim was taking the blame,” was the same as saying “I
heard her say she shot the cop,” something she never said in his
presence, Stuckey said.

There was also contention over when Stuckey changed over from
interviewing the women for information about the case and began to
move toward prosecuting them.

The trooper said that the change never really happened – “The
investigation leads where it leads.”

Stretton additionally charged that state police had
intentionally “publicized” the perjury charges against the women
two days before a hearing, apparently in an attempt to intimidate
other witnesses. Stuckey answered that the charges had been delayed
by a magistrate’s error and by the press release having to be
cleared by a state police public information officer.

Court will reconvene at 1 p.m. today.