Citing an "avalanche" of prejudicial media coverage, lawyers for Jayson Williams requested Tuesday that the former NBA star's manslaughter trial be moved out of the county where he shot a chauffeur.

"[G]iven the cumulative effect of the torrent of publicity ... it is now necessary that this Court change venue so that the defendant can receive a fair trial in front of an unbiased jury," Williams' attorneys wrote in a motion filed in Hunterdon County Superior Court.

The one-time Net is set to go on trial in September for shooting driver Costas "Gus" Christofi and then allegedly tampering with witnesses and evidence in an attempt to stage the death as a suicide. He faces 46 years in prison if convicted of aggravated manslaughter and other charges.

Prosecutors contend Williams was drunk and acted recklessly when he toyed with the double-barrel shotgun in his mansion Feb. 14, 2002. Williams acknowledges shooting Christofi but claims it was an accident, not a crime.

A defense survey of about 900 potential jurors in northern New Jersey found that 82 percent of those in rural Hunterdon County, where Williams lives, had heard about Christofi's death and half of those believed the hoopster is "probably" or "definitely" guilty of some criminal conduct, according to court papers.

In two other counties, Mercer and Bergen, significantly fewer people had heard about the case — 47 and 44 percent respectively. In both of those counties, about half of those surveyed believed Williams "probably" or "definitely" guilty of criminal conduct.

Prosecutor Steven Lember has not yet reviewed the motion, one of several filed Tuesday afternoon, and was unavailable for comment.

In another motion filed Tuesday, the defense attacked a prosecution expert who concluded Williams was intoxicated at the time of the shooting. The defense claims the "speculative retrograde extrapolation" method the psychologist used is "junk science" and provided affidavits from two experts who call his work "unreliable."

One of the defense experts, forensic psychologist Joel Dvoskin, also worked with Williams for a week before his rookie season and contends that the former player's "funny and outrageous" personality can easily be mistaken for intoxication.

In other motions:

• The defense again asked Judge Edward Coleman to throw out the indictment against Williams. His lawyers charge that prosecutor Lember did not screen grand jurors carefully for exposure to prejudicial media and allowed improper discussions in the panel, including one grand juror's speculation that Williams was mimicking a Joe Pesci character from the movie "Goodfellas" at the time of the shooting.
  
  
• The defense charged that "nearly 10 percent" of state troopers involved in the Williams investigation "have had allegations of racial bias in the past" and asked Coleman to review the officers' personnel files privately and pass relevant information to the defense.
  
  
• The defense suggested that the Browning shotgun used in the shooting may be prone to firing accidentally and asked the judge's assistance in obtaining records of such discharges from the gun's Utah manufacturer.