The special judge in Indiana presiding over the Delphi murders trial is imploring the Indiana Supreme Court to let her remain on the bench for the high-profile case. Judge Fran C. Gull on Monday responded to allegations that she violated defendant Richard Allen’s constitutional rights when she controversially disqualified his two defense attorneys from the case, reasoning that the duo had been “grossly negligent” in their time as Allen’s counsel.
In the brief, Gull asserted that she acted within the scope of her power in ousting attorneys Brad Rozzi and Andrew Baldwin and further claimed that the method through which the counselors have sought to be reinstated is procedurally improper.
Gull’s filing with the state’s highest court is the latest volley in the ongoing dispute between her and the duo of Rozzi and Baldwin in the increasingly bizarre pretrial conflicts that have come to overshadow the tragic murders of 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German and 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams.
Special Judge Fran C. Gull (Law&Crime/YouTube screenshot). Inset: Attorneys Andrew Baldwin, left, and Brad Rozzi (WTHR/YouTube screenshot)
In Monday’s filing, Gull argued that she did not violate Allen’s right Sixth Amendment right to a speedy and public trial by disqualifying his attorneys.
Gull contended that Allen’s constitutional right to choose his own counsel is outweighed by his right to effective assistance of counsel.
“[Gull] acted well within her discretion to remove Baldwin and Rozzi over [their] objections,” the document states. “The record supports that the trial court could reasonably conclude Baldwin and Rozzi committed multiple violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct, compromised [Allen’s] defense, and that ‘the totality of the circumstances demonstrate[d] gross negligence and incompetence on the part of the defense team.””
According to Gull, she believed replacing Allen’s attorneys was the only way to ensure that he had a competent defense, and listed several of the attorneys alleged missteps. For example, Gull said that Rozzi and Baldwin failed to safeguard confidential case material, failed to report an accidental email of confidential work, made public statements that were likely to materially prejudice the case, and provided the court with false information.
“The record demonstrates that the trial court, based on the totality of circumstances, could reasonably conclude that counsel’s representation of [Allen] fell objectively short of the prevailing professional norms and that counsel’s deficient performance prejudiced the defense in violation of [Allen’s] Sixth Amendment right to competent counsel,” the filing states.
Further, she asserted that if she had acted improperly, that dispute should be remedied via interlocutory appeal, not a writ of mandamus, which is what Allen’s attorneys filed. Gull referred to the writ as a “shortcut” to the appeals process, something she said “cannot be done.”
“[Rozzi and Baldwin ask] this Court to use an original action to rule, for the first time in Indiana, that the Sixth Amendment prohibits a trial court from removing counsel whom the trial court has reasonably found to have been grossly negligent,” Gull argued in the document. “But this Court will consider an extraordinary writ only when the law is settled and the trial court’s duty is absolute. This Court should decline Relator’s invitation to use an original action to alter Indiana law.”
The “will they, won’t they” surrounding Rozzi and Baldwin’s representation of Allen began when Gull came out of chambers at the start of an Oct. 19 hearing and announced that both Rozzi and Baldwin had withdrawn from the case, referring to their departure as an “unexpected turn of events.”
During that hearing — the first to allow broadcast cameras to film the proceeding — Gull said that Baldwin had orally withdrawn from the case after sealed evidence was leaked from his office and provided to a true crime podcast. She then claimed that Rozzi was also withdrawing and planned to submit a written notification to the court.
But Rozzi never submitted his resignation. Instead, he filed a series of motions seeking to have himself reinstated as Allen’s attorney and also have Gull disqualified from presiding over the trial. In the motion to have Gull disqualified from the case, Rozzi said Gull “ambushed” him and Baldwin with “a planned Hobson’s choice designed to coerce withdrawals.” He also alleged that Gull “coerced an oral request to withdraw from Attorney Rozzi” and gave neither the opportunity to defend themselves from her accusations.
Baldwin’s allegations appeared to be confirmed in a transcript of the meeting made public last week.
“I’m talking about you, I’m not accusing the state of gross incompetence and negligence, I’m finding gross incompetence and negligence with you,” Gull said to Baldwin, according to the transcript.
Gull said the decision to not allow Rozzi or Baldwin to remain on the case, even pro bono, was due to their alleged “gross negligence,” particularly due to a sealed crime scene photograph being leaked from Baldwin’s office. A 41-year-old man named Mitchell Westerman was arrested last week and charged with one count of conversion — the typical common law term for theft — for allegedly taking photographs of the sealed evidence. He’s allegedly confessed that he took the incriminating photographs while waiting to meet with Baldwin in his office and without the knowledge of either attorney, their colleagues, or employees.
David Hennessy, an attorney representing Baldwin in the dispute, argued that Gull did not give the defense attorneys proper notification about the alleged negligence, claiming that her decision to unilaterally remove them from the case violated Allen’s rights and the Constitution.
The Indiana Attorney General’s Office on Monday also filed a brief that echoed Gull’s arguments, contending that the special judge should remain on the case.
It is not clear when the state supreme court will issue a ruling on the case. Allen is currently set to go to trial in 2024 with new court-appointed attorneys.
Allen is facing two counts of murder in the 2017 slayings of Williams and German, whose bodies were discovered in a wooded area just off the Delphi Historic Trails system.
Williams and German vanished while walking the Monon High Bridge Trail near Delphi, Indiana, on Feb. 13, 2017. The trail traverses an abandoned stretch of what was once 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, and their deaths were determined to be homicides.
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