By    Timothy Dwyer, Inquirer Staff Writer

Gloucester Township Police Sgt. Albert Pierson and his wife, Nancy, the township's municipal court clerk, pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of misconduct in office in connection with their alleged failure to provide information to authorities about the 1982 murders of a Pine Hill, N.J., family. The couple also pleaded not guilty to charges of possession of methamphetamines and possession of methamphetamines with intent to distribute.

The case against the Piersons was developed during the investigation into the murders of William E. Stuart, his wife, Catherine, and their daughter, Sandra. Pierson also pleaded not guilty to charges that he had supplied a .22- caliber handgun to the suspect in the slayings sometime before the murders occurred. Investigators have refused to say whether the handgun was the weapon believed used to kill the Stuarts. The misconduct charges allege that the Piersons had information concerning the murders but that they did not provide the information to investigators. Both have been suspended from their jobs without pay. The man charged with the execution-style murders, Louis Giambi, 47, formerly of the 3100 block of Almond Street, Philadelphia, was also scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Camden County yesterday, along with the Piersons, to enter a plea. But Assistant Camden County Prosecutor Dennis G. Wixted told Judge A. Donald Bigley that Giambi would not appear because officials at the U.S. Penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pa., had not received documents approving his transfer to the Camden County Jail. Wixted told Bigley that Giambi would be available for arraignment Tuesday. Giambi, who was identified in the 1983 Pennsylvania Crime Commission report as a member of organized crime who dealt in drugs and guns, is serving a four- year sentence for a drug conviction. In July, Giambi pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Camden to a charge of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. He was recently transferred to Lewisburg from a federal prison in New York. Giambi is accused of kicking open the back door of the Stuarts' split-level home and shooting Stuart, his wife and daughter in the face from close range. According to investigators, Giambi was hired by James Cloran Jr. to kill a witness in an assault case in which Cloran had been charged. Investigators believe that Giambi went to the Stuarts' house, and killed the three victims, by mistake. Cloran was murdered five weeks after the Stuarts' death. Investigators have said that the murders were not related. Pierson's attorney, Maury K. Cutler, told Bigley that Pierson and his wife had played no part in the murder. Wixted has acknowledged that Pierson did not participate in the murder, but he has alleged that Pierson learned about it through his relationship with Giambi but did nothing to alert authorities.