SOMERVILLE, N.J. — A judge refused to dismiss manslaughter charges against Jayson Williams Thursday, saying that despite "troubling" conduct by a prosecutor, the former NBA star could still receive a fair trial.

Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman said he would allow Williams' attorneys to reopen their case and call additional witnesses to combat evidence violations by lead prosecutor Steven Lember.

Attorney Hayden said Williams will appeal.

He said scrapping the two-month trial, as the defense wanted, was too "drastic" a measure.

"We have a fair-minded jury. A jury that's been faithful to this trial for months. Let them hear the evidence," Coleman said during an hour-long ruling from the bench.

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He said Williams had failed to show that the violations had compromised his defense and that his lawyers could tell jurors about the prosecutor's actions.

Williams, who faces 55 years in prison in connection with the fatal shooting of chauffeur Costas "Gus" Christofi, was not in court for announcement. His wife, Tanya, delivered the couple's second child Tuesday night and remains in a hospital because of complications, his lawyers said.

Prosecutor Steven Lember was accused of hiding evidence.

Attorney Joseph Hayden Jr. said Williams' legal team would file an emergency appeal immediately, but agreed to proceed with the trial Monday while waiting for a decision from the appeals court.

The defense also asked Coleman to remove Lember as prosecutor for the remainder of the trial. Coleman said the request was "rather unusual" and suggested the defense find case law to support disqualifying the prosecutor.

The judge himself had harsh words for Lember. He said it appeared the veteran prosecutor broke one of the most basic tenets of his profession and pointedly reminded the defense that they could refer him to the state attorney general to determine if his behavior was unethical.

Later lawyer Billy Martin, one of six attorneys in court for Williams Thursday, said the defense was also planning on pursuing disciplinary charges against Lember.

"It is truly disturbing the conduct of the prosecutor in this case," Martin said bitterly.

The prominent Washington, D.C., attorney has accused Lember repeatedly of trying to win the high-profile case "at all costs" and alleged a pattern of wrongdoing, including making improper statements about Williams before a grand jury and purposefully excluding black men from the jury.

Testimony in the trial came to a standstill April 1 when the defense accused Lember of purposefully concealing notes and photographs from a gun expert.

During the court probe of the allegations, the expert, Larry Nelson, revealed that he had changed a sentence in his final report after the prosecutor pointed out that it conflicted with another state witness.

Coleman said Lember should have turned over Nelson's notes and photographs, but rejected the defense claim that he intentionally concealed the materials. The judge noted that the defense team had fallen short of its duty to turn over evidence to the prosecution several times during the case.

Prosecutor Errickson argued to limit the witness list.

"Even this late-breaking discovery can be dealt with," the judge said, adding that the change to Nelson's report was "the more serious problem."

Nelson testified this week that he did not remember Lember specifically directing him to delete a phrase in his draft report, but he said the prosecutor did note that it was at odds with the findings of Detective. Sgt. James Ryan, a police ballistics expert.

"It's clear to me the deletion of that phrase without telling the defense appears to be a Brady violation," said the judge, referring to the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case requiring prosecutors to reveal exculpatory material to the defense.

Coleman ruled, however, that the defense could question Nelson about the deletion and let the jury weigh its importance.

Although Nelson, the chief engineer for Browning Arms, was originally slated as a rebuttal witness for the prosecution, Hayden said the defense plans to call him Monday as a defense witness.

The lawyer listed several other witnesses the defense would like to call, including Ryan, several employees of the prosecutor's office, two defense gun experts and Christopher Adams, a defense attorney. Adams, Hayden said, would tell jurors that Lember violated a longstanding agreement to have defense experts present when prosecution experts tested the gun.

Prosecutor Katharine Errickson said she had no objection to calling the gun experts, but opposed putting the other witnesses on the stand.

"They are trying to make this bigger than it really is," she said urging the judge to limit the witness list.

Coleman is expected to rule on the witnesses Monday morning.