Prosecutor wants Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen's attorneys held in contempt
DELPHI, Ind. — Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland filed a motion late Monday asking that the attorneys for Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen be held in contempt of court.
McLeland's eight-page motion is the latest in a series of 15 months of legal punches and counterpunches. In Monday's motion, McLeland asks for a hearing to force Allen's attorneys, Brad Rozzi and Andrew Baldwin, to show why they should not be held in contempt for their alleged repeated violation of the court's gag order.
Allen was arrested Oct. 26, 2022, on suspicion of killing teenagers Libby German and Abby Williams on Feb. 13, 2017. He was charged Oct. 28, 2022 with two counts of murder in the commission of kidnapping. Earlier this month, McLeland filed two additional counts of murder and two counts of kidnapping against Allen.
Allen's attorneys have been chided by Special Judge Frances Gull and dismissed over Allen's objections from the case on Oct. 31, 2023, as she publicly described Rozzi and Baldwin as grossly incompetent and grossly negligent. But the Indiana Supreme Court overruled Gull's decision after a Jan. 18 hearing and ordered Rozzi and Baldwin reinstated.
What followed in the 11 days since that Supreme Court hearing has been a string of allegations from Allen's defense and the prosecutor, as well as a court order denying two defense motions without a hearing.
McLeland's motion for contempt cited crime scene photos leaked by Baldwin's trusted friend who made copies of the images while visiting Baldwin's office last fall.
"... Defense Counsel Rozzi accepts responsibility for a lapse in security that caused the photos to be leaked. Admitting to this court that they are in indirect contempt of the Court's Order," McLeland wrote in the state's motion for contempt.
McLeland cited several statements made by Rozzi and Baldwin, starting Dec. 1, 2022 with a news release that was published before a formal gag order was in place. However, Rozzi and Baldwin earlier assured Gull and McLeland that a gag order was not necessary since they would not make such statements.
Gull issued a gag order on Dec. 2, 2022.
McLeland accused the defense of other breaches of the gag order by releasing information to people not associated with the case, which then showed up on YouTube broadcasts.
McLeland accused Rozzi and Baldwin of publishing information and photos in the defense's 136-page memorandum in support of a hearing to vet law enforcement officers' truthfulness in obtaining a search warrant of Allen's house. This Sept. 18 memorandum contained graphic descriptions of the crime scene as it detailed the defense's position that police withheld information to get the search warrant.
Four days after the Indiana Supreme Court ruled against Gull and ordered Rozzi and Baldwin reinstated as Allen's attorneys, Gull published an order denying the requested hearing and a motion to suppress evidence found in the search — a point made Monday by Rozzi and Baldwin in the motion to have Gull recuse herself from the case.
"The State asks the Court to issue a Rule to Show Cause Order based on this information and set this matter for a Hearing and Order Attorneys Brad Rozzi and Andrew Baldwin to appear and show cause, if there be any, why they should not be held in contempt of this Court," the motion concludes.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Gull has not published an order for a hearing date.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Prosecutor wants Delphi murder suspect's attorneys held in contempt
