Prosecutor blasts ‘unfounded allegations’ by Delphi defense team

Delphi prosecutor says defense is making unfounded accusations

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The prosecutor handling the Delphi murders case says the defense team is making “unfounded accusations supported by absolutely no proof.”

The response is part of a series of court filings Tuesday in the case against Richard Allen.

Allen faces two counts of murder in connection to the February 2017 deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German.

The two teenage girls were found dead near the Monon High Bridge in Delphi.

In one of Tuesday’s court filings, Prosecutor Nick McLeland responded to a defense request that Allen be immediately moved out of the maximum security state prison where he’s been held since days after his arrest in 2022.

Allen’s attorneys have compared his treatment to that of a ‘prisoner of war’, adding that the treatment has led to his mental and physical deterioration.

Allen “is in no way being treated less fairly than anyone else in that facility,” McLeland wrote in the court filing. “He certainly is not being treated less fairly than a convicted person in that facility.”

McLeland’s filing included affidavits from three Department of Correction employees, including the acting warden, claiming Allen has not been mistreated by guards and is being held there for his own protection.

The affidavits also confirm guards stopped wearing patches related to Odinism after an order issued by their commander in September.

The defense claimed last month that the girls were murdered as part of a ‘ritualistic sacrifice’ in Odinism.

“The colorful, dramatic language used by the Defense was an attempt to curry public favor for their client and try this matter in the public eye instead of in the courtroom, as they have done in several motions to date,” McLeland wrote.

Allen’s attorneys claimed in September that police reopened their investigation into an Odinism angle

All parties in the case are under a gag order, and McLeland has asked that the judge seal all future court filings until after they have been reviewed.

Judge Frances Gull, the special judge assigned to Allen’s case, has previously rejected a defense request to order Allen moved out of a state prison facility.

She has not ruled or set hearings on the new request, as well as defense requests to suppress evidence found in Allen’s home and to allow cameras in the courtroom for the case.

Allen is set to stand trial beginning in January, although that date is likely to be delayed.