DELPHI, Ind. — The contentious legal sparring between attorneys for Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen and Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland continued Tuesday.
In the morning, McLeland filed a motion for former Rushville Police Chief Todd Click's personnel file to see if there are credibility issues with Click, who is expected to be a witness for the defense.
On Tuesday afternoon, Allen's attorney filed an 11-page motion asking for sanctions against McLeland and the state's case for failing to disclose evidence in the time allotted by state law.
"The prosecutor in a criminal case shall make timely disclosure to the defense of all evidence or information known to the prosecutor that tends to negate the guilty of the accused or mitigates the office," Allen's motion states when discussing Click's 83-page report into possible involvement of Rushville residents in the Feb. 13, 2017, killing of Libby German and Abby Williams.
Allen's attorneys allege in the motion that some of their requests for specific evidence still have not been released by the prosecutor.
Special Judge Frances Gull has not ruled on either motion.
Allen's attorneys filled 11 pages with 40 paragraphs, including subsections to most of the paragraphs, detailing how McLeland failed to meet state-mandated deadlines to disclose its evidence to Allen's attorneys. The motion concludes by asking Gull to apply sanctions against the state during the trial.
The motion requests five sanctions against the state, including asking the court to instruct the jury in the trial scheduled for next month that the prosecutor had evidence in May 2023 that might exonerate Allen, but failed to timely share it with defense attorneys.
The motion asks the court to allow the defense to play any video that the prosecutor's office belatedly produced without objection from the state.
As another sanction, Allen's attorneys asked that prosecutors be prevented from rebutting the evidence that Click provided to the state on May 1, 2023.
The last sanction the defense requested is that the state not be allowed to use any evidence extracted from Libby German's cellphone. This sanction is because Allen's attorney has not received any of the state's evidence from the phone, despite having requested it. The motion claims the data from Libby's phone has been in police possession since Feb. 15, 2017.
Allen's attorneys also asked the judge to order McLeland to explain in writing his reasons for the delayed release of evidence, as well as the reasons behind him sending an email to Allen's attorneys that allegedly was filled with false statements that misled the defense.
Reach Ron Wilkins or at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
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