MIDDLETOWN — Warren County prosecutors say because the lead detective’s testimony in the Ryan Widmer bathtub murder case was not key, the trial judge’s suppression of false employment records doesn’t warrant a fourth trial.

Assistant Prosecutor Michael Greer last week filed a response to the second appeal in the Widmer case, addressing issues raised about former Lt. Jeff Braley’s suppressed employment information, among other issues. The 12th District Court of Appeals is still considering the first appeal, which dealt largely with the alleged illegally seized bathtub.

Appeals court Administrator Ben Manning said the standard is usually 60 days for appellate decisions. Saturday is the two-month mark from the oral argument in the first appeal.

“More complicated cases sometimes take longer,” Manning said. “We working on it and I would think it’s going to take every bit of the 60 days.”

Widmer, 31, was convicted last year of drowning his wife Sarah, an Edgewood High School graduate, in their Hamilton Twp. home in 2008. It was the third murder trial for Widmer. The first conviction was overturned by juror misconduct. The second jury was hung. He is serving 15 years to life in prison.

Widmer’s attorney Michele Berry-Godsey’s second appeal centers on Braley, who resigned last year after an investigation revealed he lied on his job application about his educational and employment experience.

Defense attorneys were never allowed to use the information to impeach Braley’s qualifications. Had they been able, Berry-Godsey asserts the outcome of the trial would have been different.

Greer argued that Braley was a largely insignificant witness, compared to the allegedly staged 911 call and first responders to the scene. He also debunked Berry-Godsey assertion that Braley perjured himself during a day-long hearing in 2010 regarding his employment records. Prosecutors are prohibited from using testimony they know to be false, to secure a conviction. Greer says they didn’t in this case.

“Since the alleged false testimony was never presented at trial, it was impossible for the state to have used those alleged false statements to obtain the appellant’s conviction for murder,” he wrote. “There is no likelihood that Lt. Braley’s alleged false testimony affected the judgement of any of the jurors in this case because none of the jurors ever heard it.”

Berry-Godsey also faulted Judge Neal Bronson for not allowing them to test Sarah Widmer’s DNA for a possible rare genetic disorder and for disallowing review of the grand jury testimony of Braley and Corner Dr. Russell Uptegrove. Greer addressed those issues as well.

Manning said an oral argument hasn’t been scheduled yet for the second appeal, but it should be soon, now that the prosecutors have filed their brief.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.