A South Carolina judge expects to hold a hearing May 9 on a motion filed by The Fayetteville Observer seeking to dissolve a gag order in the child sex case involving Fayetteville car dealer Mike Lallier, the Observer’s lawyer said Tuesday.

The observer filed the motion Jan. 12, but it has yet to be heard because Roger E. Henderson — chief administrative judge for South Carolina’s 4th Judicial Circuit — has been ill.

Henderson filed the gag order Sept. 19, about two weeks after Lallier was charged with molesting a 15-year-old boy during a NASCAR race weekend at the Darlington Raceway.

Lallier, co-owner of Reed-Lallier Chevrolet on Raeford Road, has been free on bail almost since his arrest.

The gag order prohibits anyone connected to the case from speaking about it outside of court or from sharing court records.

Henderson said in the order that it was needed to protect a pending investigation and Lallier’s right to a fair trial.

The Observer counters that the order “is a constitutionally impermissible prior restraint on speech” that “cast a blanket of silence over these criminal proceedings and interferes in significant and impermissible ways with the ability of the public and press to learn of the proceedings.”

The Observer contends that nothing about this case, other than Lallier’s high profile in Fayetteville, “is any different than any other felony case brought in the South Carolina courts.”

The newspaper’s motion was filed by media lawyer Jon Buchan Jr. of Charlotte and Jay Bender, a lawyer in Columbia who represents the South Carolina Press Association.

In an email Tuesday, Buchan said the Observer’s motion is set to be heard at 9:30 a.m. May 9 in Bennettsville, South Carolina.

Buchan said Bender emailed the prosecutor Monday to ask her to review the motion and consider consenting to it, which would remove the need for a hearing and make Lallier’s court records public. The prosecutor had not responded.

During the weekend, Lallier’s wife, Debbie, posted pictures on Facebook of her family, including Mike Lallier, with the caption, “Happy Easter from Mar-a-Lago Palm Beach — brunch with the First Family.”

President Trump maintains private quarters in a separate, closed-off area of the members-only resort in Florida. Two pictures Debbie Lallier posted appear to show Trump in the same banquet hall where the Lalliers were seated. Debbie Lallier’s father, Gene Reed, was among those at the gathering. Reed, who lives in Florida, is co-owner of Reed-Lallier Chevrolet.

Mike Lallier, 63, is charged in South Carolina with criminal sexual conduct with a minor in the third degree, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

A warrant filed by the Darlington County Sheriff’s Office accuses Lallier of inappropriately touching the boy at his motor home, which was parked in the infield at the Darlington Raceway over the Labor Day weekend.

In March, court documents show, Lallier and Reed settled a lawsuit filed against them by a fired Reed-Lallier employee whom they had tried to keep from discussing the Darlington case.

The documents don’t disclose the terms of the settlement or the amount of money that was paid. An earlier document shows that the fired employee had demanded $1.5 million and Lallier’s ownership in three small businesses. The same document shows Lallier had offered to pay the fired employee $250,000 over 18 months.

Sources close to Lallier’s criminal case say another civil lawsuit also has been settled out of court. Those terms and payments have not been publicly disclosed, either.

That case — filed in Cumberland County Superior Court and heard by an out-of-town judge — remains sealed by the judge’s order.

Staff writer Paul Woolverton contributed to this story.

Staff writer Greg Barnes can be reached at gbarnes@fayobserver.com or 486-3525.