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Clifton Gauthier, a suspended Rockaway Township police officer, stands outside the courtroom after his appearance Wednesday.

(Ben Horowitz | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

MORRISTOWN — A Rockaway Township police officer, indicted for allegedly trying to get a charge dismissed for his cousin, is fighting the prosecutor's effort to introduce evidence he did something similar for his uncle.

The suspended officer, Clifton Gauthier, 35, of Sparta, faces charges of official misconduct and witness tampering in connection with his alleged efforts on Feb. 9, 2012 on behalf of his cousin, Sean Costigan, who faced a driving while intoxicated charge in Rockaway Township Municipal Court.

Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Sahil Kabse last month filed a motion seeking to allow him to introduce evidence that just two weeks earlier — on Jan. 25, 2012 — Gauthier tried to intervene on behalf of an uncle, Edward Garneau, who was also charged with DWI. Gauthier has not been charged in that incident.

Gauthier's attorney, Scott Krasny, has filed a brief opposing the use of the earlier incident.

"They're trying to bring in some other thing, it's just not evidential," Krasny said in an interview after a status conference was held Wednesday in Superior Court in Morristown.

Judge Robert Gilson scheduled a hearing for Feb. 3 on whether the prior incident may be used as evidence.

Kabse told the court he expects "two or three witnesses" to testify during that hearing.

Kabse also told the court there has been no progress in negotiations over the prosecutor's plea offer.

Gauthier has rejected the state's offer of a five-year prison term with no chance for parole.

Kabse told the court he has no flexibility on the plea offer because under state law, that is the required sentence on the official misconduct charge.

In the Costigan case, Gauthier allegedly contacted the arresting state trooper, Nagib Saad, and told him he did not have to appear in court in the matter, based on information he said he had received from Denis Driscoll, who was then the municipal prosecutor.

However, after Saad called Driscoll to verify that account, Driscoll said "he did not speak" to Gauthier and was "not aware of any reason" for the trooper not to appear in court, Kabse said.

In the Garneau matter, Gauthier came to municipal court and allegedly interrupted Driscoll's conversation with the arresting officers in attempt to speak to the then-prosecutor about his uncle's case, according to Kabse.

During Wednesday's court conference, Krasny said he also intends to file a motion to dismiss the indictment and complained that the prosecution has not provided all the Rockaway Township Municipal Court notices that were involved in the case.

Kabse said he will go to the municipal court to try to retrieve all the needed documents by early January, but said he couldn't guarantee he will find all of them.

"If there are documents that don't exist, the state has no obligation to create them," Kabse said.

Ben Horowitz may be reached at bhorowitz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @HorowitzBen. Find NJ.com on Facebook.