Richard Allen prior to his incarceration (left) and on April 4, 2023 (right) (Carroll County Circuit Court filing)
Attorneys representing accused Delphi murderer Richard Allen have requested their client be moved to a new holding facility, asserting that he is being held in conditions “akin to those of a prisoner of war” in order to frustrate his ability to defend himself at his upcoming trial.
The emergency motion to modify safekeeping order, filed Wednesday in the Carroll County Circuit Court by defense attorney Bradley A. Rozzi, seeks to have Special Judge Fran C. Gull order Allen removed from the Westville Correctional Facility, where he’s been housed since November 2022. Allen was ordered to be held in the facility prior to his court-appointed attorneys being assigned to represent him in the high-profile murder case.
The lengthy list of grievances alleged in the motion includes that Allen is forced to sleep on a pad on a concrete floor, only showers twice per week, had been prohibited from seeing his wife or family, and is permitted very limited recreation time.
“Mr. Allen has been entombed in a cell as small as a 6ft in width by 10ft in length, a space no larger than that of a dog kennel,” the motion states. “In sum, Mr. Allen is being treated far less favorably than a convicted person, many of which are housed in less secure areas of the prison, are offered programming, therapy, and mental health services, routine recreation, and contact visits with family and friends.”
According to the motion, Allen has been segregated inside of the maximum security prison with individuals who have “committed some of the most heinous crimes known to our society,” and the austere conditions have had severely detrimental effects on his physical and mental wellbeing.
His attorneys say that when they visited him in prison on Monday they observed firsthand a “steep decline” in his demeanor, abilities to communicate and comprehend, and capability in assisting in his own defense.
“Simply put, this version of Richard Allen was a very different version than counsel for Mr. Allen had interacted with over the past five months. Mr. Allen appeared to be suffering from various psychotic symptoms which counsel would describe as schizophrenic and delusional,” his attorneys wrote. “Counsel further believes that in our April 4, 2023 interaction, Mr. Allen seems to be suffering from memory loss and is demonstrating an overall inability to communicate rationally with counsel and family members.”
The motion included a photo of Allen appearing haggard and emaciated as compared to photos of him prior to incarceration, claiming he is being detained in a manner that could “casually be referred to as ‘death row.””
Allen’s attorneys requested that he be relocated to the newly erected Cass County Jail, which they say offers more traditional conditions for a defendant in pretrial detention and is located across the street from his attorneys’ office.
“Said modification of Mr. Allen’s incarceration would result in a more humane living environment in which Mr. Allen would be afforded immediate access to his attorneys and more importantly, would allow Mr. Allen to have regular contact visits with his family, i.c., this detention circumstance would afford Mr. Allen due process of law,” the motion states. “Under these circumstances, Mr. Allen would be treated like other inmates awaiting trial in the criminal justice system, as opposed to being punished based only on the merits of untested charging information and probable cause affidavit.”
According to the motion, prosecutors told Allen’s attorneys they have no objection to their client being relocated, but the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department rejected the request for allegedly nefarious and unconstitutional reasons. The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s request for comment.
“Mr. Allen asserts that said denial is a deliberate attempt to impose conditions upon him that are intended to frustrate his purpose in defending against the charged allegations and create a hardship on him which would drive any human to mental breakdown,” his attorneys wrote. “Said approach to his pre-trial detention is a direct infringement on his Sixth Amendments rights under the U.S. Constitution.”
Allen is facing two counts of murder in the twin 2017 slayings of Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, and her friend Liberty “Libby” German, 14, whose bodies were discovered in a wooded area just off of the Delphi Historic Trails system.
Abby and Libby vanished while walking the Monon High Bridge Trail near Delphi, Indiana, on Feb. 13, 2017. The trail traverses an abandoned stretch of what once was the Monon Railroad and crosses an old trestle over a small river or creek. The girls were found dead the next day in an area near the trestle.
Allen’s next hearing is currently scheduled to take place on June 15.
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