Aaron Hernandez Update: Judge to hear arguments on prosecutors' motion for recusal in ex-NFL star's murder case
(CBS) FALL RIVER, Mass. - Prosecutors in the murder case against ex-NFL star Aaron Hernandez who want the judge to recuse herself over alleged bias are scheduled to outline their arguments in court Monday.
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Prosecutors have asked Judge Susan Garsh to step aside, saying she and prosecutor William McCauley have a "history of antagonism" stemming from a 2010 murder trial. McCauley criticized her publicly even after winning a conviction. He says Garsh was hostile and wrongly excluded evidence.
The former New England Patriot's attorneys call the recusal request "patently without merit" and say the bias charges are unsupported.
READ: Timeline of Aaron Hernandez murder investigation
Both sides will make their arguments before Garsh Monday afternoon in Fall River Superior Court.
A spokesman for prosecutors says an identical motion was filed two years ago and that Garsh gave the case to another judge, reports the Associated Press. However, according to the Fall River Herald News, Garsh gave the case to another judge due to scheduling conflicts. She reportedly never ruled on the recusal motion.
CBS News' legal analyst Rikki Klieman said on CBS This Morning following the filing of the recusal motion in the Hernandez case thatit is highly unusual for a prosecutor to ask a judge to recuse themselves.
She said she thought the motion for recusal "is not a good idea" despite any bad blood that the prosecutor and the judge may have had in the past.
Instead, she said, a much better move for the prosecution would have been for the prosecutor to recuse himself from the case.
"Prosecutors are actually fungible. You have a whole office full of prosecutors," Klieman said. "If you're going to move to recuse a judge because you have personal animosity or she has it towards you, for heavens sake, why not recuse yourself and let some other prosecutor go ask the questions," Klieman said.
Hernandez, 23, was indicted in August in the killing of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, a semi-professional football player who was dating the sister of Hernandez's girlfriend. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and five weapons-related charges last month and is being held without bailat a county jail.
The defense has said previously that prosecutors' case won't hold up during a jury trial and they are confident Hernandez will be exonerated.