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CARROLL COUNTY, Ind. — The prosecutor in the Delphi murders case may have some explaining to do.
In a motion filed Friday, Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland withdrew his request for third party records in regard to double murders suspect Richard Allen. When McLeland filed his original motion Wednesday, he quoted Allen’s defense’s Ex Parte motion. Ex Parte means “by or for one party”, meaning attorneys Andrew Baldwin and Brad Rozzi filed their motion with the intention that it would only be read by Special Judge Fran Gull.
Hear the full breakdown from Michael Moore, Assistant Executive Director of the Indiana Public Defender Council. Original article continues below.
Baldwin and Rozzi’s motion was for Funding for Expert Services. In that motion, as exposed in McLeland’s Wednesday filing, Allen’s legal team had requested funding for a psychologist. McLeland named that psychologist and quoted the defense’s Ex Parte motion.
Allen’s legal team then emailed McLeland Thursday, clarifying that he had accessed information that he shouldn’t have.
In Friday’s motion, Prosecutor McLeland listed his own reasons as to why this happened, among those being his request was not denied and Allen’s team has previously filed other motions Ex Parte but were still accessible.
However, the motions were still labeled Ex Parte, meaning McLeland should’ve read that and should have avoided those motions that were not intended for his eyes. Friday’s motion also confirms McLeland has read previous Ex Parte motions filed by the defense.
It’s unclear if McLeland or anyone else will face discipline from the court.
The next hearing is March 18th at 9 a.m. in Allen County. Prosecutor McLeland was expected to use that hearing to try and convince Judge Gull to hold attorneys Baldwin and Rozzi in contempt of court for some of their previous actions and statements. The issues of adding additional charges to Allen’s case and the dismissal of charges requested by Allen’s legal team were also expected to be discussed.
The trial is supposed to begin October 15th, but Richard Allen’s legal team recently filed another request for a speedy trial within 70 days, which would be the trial start date around May 15th. That date can be changed depending on several different factors, exceptions, extensions, and much more.
