DELPHI, Ind. — The attorneys for Delphi murders suspect Richard Allen are requesting a continuance for the March 18 contempt hearing in Allen County.
Allen is accused of killing Libby German and Abby Williams in February 2017.
Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland argues that the defense attorneys should be held in contempt of court for what he calls a "trend" of "not being completely honest with the court." The prosecutor said the attorneys violated the gag order in the case by issuing a press release on Dec. 1, 2022, proclaiming Allen's innocence. McLeland also points to information, including crime scene photos, leaked to the public through Baldwin's office.
Allen’s attorneys, Andrew Baldwin and Bradley Rozzi, claim they just received additional recorded interviews from the prosecution on March 11 that could affect their response in the contempt hearing. Allen’s attorneys said they weren’t able to review the recordings until March 13.
According to the defense, they need to investigate claims made in the recordings about the source of various photographs that were “posted on the internet and traded between people on the internet.”
Several of the police interviews are with people who had access to those photos. Allen’s attorneys claim they have not been able to talk to those people in preparation for the contempt of court hearing.
Some of those allegedly involved are podcasters. Specific reference is made to what was allegedly seen in the photographs, including clothing on Williams and sticks found on our near the bodies.
The defense also said it is yet to receive screenshots the podcasters allegedly said they would provide to officers investigating the crime scene photo leak.
At the time of publishing, the March 18 hearing is still set to take place in Allen County.
Defense asks again for search warrant to be thrown out
Allen's attorneys have also filed a third request for a Franks hearing the case.
In a Franks hearing, the defense is required to show false statements were knowingly or intentionally made to get a warrant, which led to the finding of probable cause for charges.
In the filing, his attorneys state that prior to their removal from the case for a period, they received geofencing evidence from phones that at least three people "were in or around the crime scene at a time while the murders were taking place."
None of the owners of the phones "have any connection to Richard Allen," his attorneys maintain in the filings.
That geofencing evidence would, according to the documents, provide evidence of several alternative scenarios outlined by Allen's attorneys. One would pertain to people walking with phones who may have been witnesses to the murders as they were taking place.
Another scenario could be that the people walking with the phones were witnesses who observed nothing, "as the murders did not take place the afternoon of Feb. 13, 2023, but the victims were taken to the crime scene after the search was called off."
The third scenario outlined by Allen's attorneys states the persons "walking with the phones were participants in the murders."
The defense claims that geofencing evidence did not belong to Allen and are not from people affiliated with Allen.
Allen's attorneys argue that law enforcement "concealed" this information from the judge who granted a search warrant for Allen's home, and that it "is reasonable to conclude" that the judge would not have signed the affidavit had he had the information.
They further claim this geofencing evidence was "so important to somebody involved in the investigation" that they created a map and plotted the movements of these persons.
One plotted movement showed at least one of the people with a phone was "within 60-1,000 yards of the crime scene at a time when the murders would have been committed according to law enforcement's timelines," his attorneys claim in the filing.
Allen's lawyers again reiterated claims that police attempted to conceal the full extent of information provided by former Purdue professor Jeffrey Turco.
They state that after being reinstated in the case, they received a September 2023 report written by Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Holeman "purportedly memorializing" an interview he had with Turco.
Allen's lawyers claim that Holeman "attempted to deceive the reader in said report by leaving out key information and words" Turco said regarding the likelihood that sticks left near the crime scene were runes (ancient symbols) – which they argue would make the involvement of Odinism in the murders "more likely and worth investigating."