Kenneth Michaels, the CEO of Cable Services accused in the fatal shooting of his brother-in-law, filed a motion in county court Friday, seeking the disqualification and recusal of the Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office, and a transfer of his case to the state attorney general’s office, PennLive.com reported.

Michaels, 66, admits he shot John Roskowski, 69, inside the lobby of family-owned Cable Services just north of Williamsport on Aug. 17, however, he contends he did so in self defense because Roskowski had a violent temper, a history of drug use, and had assaulted him on two separate occasions before the shooting.

The motion questions the objectivity of the DA’s office, after current Lycoming County District Attorney Tom Marino sat at the counsel table with First Assistant District Attorney Martin Wade for Michaels’ preliminary hearing, as well as a November bail hearing before he took office in late December the motion said, according to PennLive.com.

An early September interview Marino and county Detective Stephen Sorage conducted with a Cable Services Co. employee who is a daughter-in-law of a former county detective is also cited in the motion.

“This is just between us. It doesn’t leave this room. We were never here,” Marino tells the employee at the conclusion of the interview, the document claims, PennLive.com reported.

Marino’s personal involvement in at least one interview indicates he may have had input in the charging decisions before his election, Michaels claims.

Marino said he has nothing to hide, and will truthfully answer any questions asked of him by a judge, according to PennLive.com.

Several other instances of Marino’s personal interactions with Roskowski were listed in the filing, including at least one occasion on which Marino drove Roskowski to an inpatient drug treatment facility, Marino and his family being among social guests on Cable Services’ corporate plane when Roskowski was the CEO in mid-2020, and a phone call made to Roskowski in June of last year seeking financial support for his campaign for district attorney, according to PennLive.com.

Omnibus pretrial motions by Michaels also seek to suppress statements he made to investigators because his Miranda rights were not properly administered, as well as one interview was conducted without his attorney present.

Michaels is also seeking to have evidence seized during consensual searches conducted without a warrant, court documents said, according to PennLive.com.

The DA’s office recently asked the state Superior Court to deny a defense motion that seeks a review of Judge Ryan Tira’s decision not to make Michaels eligible for bail.

Wade argues no abuse of discretion was made by Tira, who he said followed the law in denying bail for Michaels, who Tira found likely committed an offense that could result in a life sentence, for which the state Constitution requires defendants be held without bail.

Michaels has been incarcerated without bail since his arrest in Cape May, New Jersey, 10 days after the shooting.

Michaels’ actions on Aug. 17 “were substantially more likely than not willful, deliberate and premeditated,” Tira said in a ruling issued in February, three months after the bail hearing took place, PennLive.com reported.

Michaels’ statements that he brought that specific gun to work that day for “accuracy,” and retrieved it from his desk drawer instead of calling 911 when Roskowski appeared on the premises, as he had instructed employees to do just a day prior, also played a part in Tira’s ruling.

Other findings within Tira’s ruling were cited by Wade in arguing the request to review the bail ruling should be denied, the news outlet said.

These included Michaels’ recorded statements containing significant evidence of premeditation and proof he did not believe deadly force was necessary when he fired at an unarmed Roskowski, who had no physical contact with Michaels, made no verbal threats and was in poor health.

Prosecution evidence suggests Michaels lied when he told investigators Roskowski had lunged at him before he fired the fatal shot, Tira also found.

The evidence would have to show that Michaels was physically attacked in order for a factfinder to find the shooting was self-defense, and the evidence shows that was not the case, Wade said, according to PennLive.com.

There is indisputable evidence that Roskowski was not permitted on Cable Services’ ground, but was at the front door pushing the buzzer continuously anyway, Michaels’ defense team argued.

Roskowski pushed his way into the lobby where the confrontation occurred when Michaels opened the front door in order to speak with his former business partner, the defense claims.