SOMERVILLE, N.J. — A judge is set to decide Tuesday afternoon whether alleged intentional misconduct by the prosecutor in the Jayson Williams manslaughter trial should result in a complete dismissal of charges against the NBA star.

Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman said he would announce his ruling at 1:30 pm ET.

Lead prosecutor Steven Lember failed to provide the defense with photographs and notes from a gun expert, as required by law, until the final day of testimony in the two-month trial and long after the defense had rested its case.

Lember insists he simply forgot about the materials until he happened upon them while preparing the expert, Larry Nelson, for testimony.

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But defense lawyers claim Lember purposefully hid the evidence as part of what they say is a pattern of misconduct designed to rob Williams of his right to a fair trial.

The one-time New Jersey Net All-Star stands accused of aggravated manslaughter and seven other charges in connection with the shooting death of driver Costas "Gus" Christofi at his mansion Feb. 14, 2002. Williams, who faces 55 years in prison, maintains the shooting was an accident caused by a malfunction in his 12-gauge Browning Citori shotgun.

Jurors were sent home April 1 when the allegations surfaced, and if the judge permits the trial to go forward, the panelists will not return to the jury box until at least Wednesday.

On Monday, Coleman listened to arguments from both sides and heard additional testimony from Nelson, whose examination of the Citori is at the center of the dispute.

Nelson, the chief engineer for Browning Arms, volunteered to act as an expert for the prosecution and examined the weapon about a year after the shooting.

Under questioning by defense lawyer Joseph Hayden Jr., Nelson acknowledged that Lember suggested he alter a portion of his report that conflicted with the findings of another gun expert for the prosecution.

The defense got access to a draft copy of the report as part of the investigation into the undisclosed evidence.

Nelson said the prosecutor reviewed his draft and pointed out a section that was at odds with state police ballistics examiner James Ryan's conclusion that the gun could discharge if jerked closed while light trigger pressure was applied.

Nelson said he believed Ryan "had a misunderstanding" of how the shooting occurred, but after talking to the prosecutor, he deleted a phrase hinting at that.

"For whatever reason he wasn't comfortable with that and it came out," he said.

The report turned over to the defense never indicated Nelson's qualms about Ryan's conclusions.

Nelson, however, said the change was not "substantive" and Lember never forced him to put anything in the report he did not believe.

"He wasn't holding a gun to my head," Nelson deadpanned.

Hayden told the judge that the differing opinions between the prosecution experts would have helped undercut the testimony of Ryan, one of the state's most important witnesses, and bolster the findings of the defense gun experts.

Referring to his fellow defense attorney Michael Kelly, known for his grueling cross-examinations of forensic witnesses, Hayden said, "Imagine what Mr. Kelly could've done with this information had it been turned over by the state."

"We did not score substantial points that we could have," he said.

Another defense lawyer, Billy Martin, recited a list of other defense criticisms of Lember. He noted that the prosecutor made what he considered inappropriate statements to the grand jury about Williams and used his peremptory challenges to remove black men as jurors.

"We feel that the continued outrageous and egregious conduct of this prosecution has led to violation of his due process rights and has deprived him the right to a fair trial," he said.

Hayden told the judge the only appropriate sanction was to dismiss the entire case and bar the prosecution from ever charging Williams again.

Prosecutor Katharine Errickson accused the defense of exploiting a simple mistake in a desperate bid to prevent the case from going to the jury.

"They want the death of an innocent victim to go unjudged," she said.

She told Coleman that the defense case had not suffered serious harm and Williams' attorneys could easily recall Ryan and their experts to the witness stand and ask them additional questions.

As Lember sat silently beside her at the prosecution table, she accused the defense of using the hearing for "character assassination" of the veteran prosecutor.

"If that's how the defense chooses to go about strategy with the jury that's fine, but it's inappropriate here where the focus should be, where's the harm and what's the remedy," she said.

When Errickson recounted how Lember discovered the photographs on the eve of his expert's testimony, a now familiar story in Coleman's courtroom, Williams shook his head in disgust and pushed back his chair at the defense table.

His lawyers wanted to put Lember on the witness stand to answer questions about the report, but the prosecutor declined, and the judge refused to force him.