The special judge in the Delphi Murders case will not step down and has denied the request from the defense team to disqualify herself from this case.
In a motion filed Monday, Special Judge Fran Gull went step by step in addressing each accusation made by attorneys Andrew Baldwin and Brad Rozzi in their second attempt to have the judge removed from the case of the State of Indiana versus Richard Allen.
Allen’s attorneys have continued to claim Judge Gull has showed bias towards their team, had inappropriate communications with other parties in the case including Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland, ruled in favor of the State more than the defense, and much more. Gull went through each accusation offering her own counter arguments, including citing examples of times she ruled for the defense, set hearings for sanctions against Prosecutor McLeland, explained why certain off the record communication wasn’t noteworthy, so on and so forth.
Judge Gull also stated that the defense has not filed documentation properly in some cases, and has had their own lack of communication in others. She cites the issue of trial schedule. Judge Gull states that she did not hear from the defense for an extended period of time once the defense’s request for a speedy trial was granted, and that had the defense immediately voiced their concerns about having a brief trial schedule, then she would have extended the trial from May 13th to June 14th.
However, Judge Gull claims the defense made no such attempt until days before the May trial was set to begin, hence why the trial has now been moved to October.
In the matter of cameras in the courtroom, Richard Allen’s attorneys claim the judge has only allowed cameras in the courtroom when it benefited the Court, which would have been the disqualification of Baldwin and Rozzi back on October 19th, 2023.
Judge Gull claims the Carroll County Courthouse is too small for a full broadcast set-up from multiple media outlets, and that one outlet essentially ruined the chance to broadcast the case for everyone at the October 19th hearing: “The Court has not allowed cameras in the Carroll Circuit Court due to its limited size and layout. The Court did allow cameras in the Allen Superior Court at the hearing conducted on October 19, 2023. The hearing was not conducted, and the media outlet providing pool coverage did not comply with the Court’s directives regarding coverage and broadcasting of the proceedings. The Court lost confidence in the ability of the media to cover hearings appropriately.”
Judge Fran Gull denied the second motion to disqualify and denied the part of the motion that would have required her to provide “findings of fact and law”, as Gull says this part of the motion is not applicable in criminal cases.
The trial begins October 14th and lasts through November 15th.
Now that Judge Gull has ruled on the disqualify motion, there are several motions left to decide on including what evidence will be allowed at trial, the motion to suppress Richard Allen’s prison statements, the motion to move Allen from prison to a county jail, the 4th Franks motion, and much more.
