The judge overseeing the trial of Richard Allen, who is accused of killing two Delphi, Indiana, teenagers back in 2017, has called his defense attorneys “incompetent,” but didn’t find them in contempt of court.
Special Judge Fran Gull made the determination on Wednesday, more than a month after a hearing where Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland accused defense attorneys Andrew Baldwin and Bradley Rozzi of being in contempt of court due to an evidence leak and allegations they violated a gag order, Fox 59 reported.
Gull said in her ruling that McLeland “proved by a preponderance of the evidence that defense counsel was sloppy, negligent and incompetent in their handling of discovery material.” However, she added that the prosecutor failed to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the attorneys were “willful and intentional” in their actions.
Gull also agreed with the defense attorneys that they didn’t violate the gag order because it was put in place after they made the remarks McLeland claimed violated it.
Allen was charged in October 2022 with two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit the kidnapping of 13-year-old Abby Williams and 14-year-old Libby German on a hiking trail in 2017. In late January, McLeland filed a request to amend the charges to include two additional counts of murder and two counts of kidnapping, WTHR reported.
The contempt claims came in a filing from McLeland on January 29. Baldwin and Rozzi’s attorney, David Hennessy, filed a motion in mid-February asking for clarification on the allegations, saying the allegations suffered from “insufficiencies.”
In one example, Hennessy noted that McLeland accused his clients of violating the court’s order regarding statements about the case. He cited a news release from November 2022 — which was before the court issued a gag order.
As for the evidence leak, that was allegedly perpetrated by a former worker at Baldwin’s law firm, 41-year-old Mitchell Westerman, who was charged with one count of conversion after admitting that he took pictures of crime scene evidence related to the 2017 murders. The evidence leak led Gull to dismissing Baldwin and Rozzi from the case, but the two were reinstated by the Indiana Supreme Court.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP
Allen’s trial is scheduled to begin on May 13, with prosecutors saying he is the sole killer while the defense claims other people are responsible – namely, members of a cult. The defense attorneys point to cellphone evidence suggesting someone else was at the crime scene hours after Allen was said to have committed the murders.
The defense attorneys pointed to members of the cult as alleged suspects, whom The Daily Wire will not be naming since they have not been charged with any crimes. One of these named individuals’ social media posts contained images that mimicked the runes found at the crime scene, even though such images have never been released to the public, according to the defense. The individual allegedly also posted numerous “easter eggs” on social media that pointed to his involvement in the crime, including a recreation of the crime scene involving two women posing as dead with sticks over their bodies, just like the actual crime scene. This same individual also seemingly taunted police on social media, the defense claims.
One further tie to the victims is that this man’s son was allegedly “dating” the young victim, Abby.