Law offices argue for reinstatement of Delphi defense attorneys, dismissal of special judge

Two Indiana law offices are arguing for the reinstatement of Delphi suspect Richard Allen’s attorneys and the removal of special judge Frances Gull in the case, according to court documents.

In the writ of mandamus filed Monday morning, the Leeman Law Office and Wieneke Law Office claim Attorney Andrew Baldwin’s oral motion to withdraw his representation of Allen was involuntary.

That motion was filed just before a scheduled hearing on October 19, where Judge Gull announced Allen’s attorneys had removed themselves from the case.

Judge Gull and the court accused Allen’s defense team of “gross negligence” stemming from their filing motions to protect Allen’s health and safety and the leak of crime scene photos by a third party (page 9).

Attorneys Baldwin and Brad Rozzi claim they chose the “voluntary” withdrawal route to avoid jeopardizing the case (page 10).

But just before the October 31 hearing, Baldwin and Rozzi entered themselves as private counsel for Allen, per Allen’s request.

However, the court said, “...I cannot and will not allow these attorneys to represent you with the concerns that I’ve had, with the gross negligence that I have found,” (page 13).

New attorneys were assigned to Allen and the trial was pushed back to October 2024.

The mandamus claims the state of Indiana only recognizes two situations where a court may dismiss a counsel against the client’s wishes, and that this situation is not one of them.

Leeman and Wieneke request the removal of Judge Gull due to concerns over her ability to be impartial.

The law offices claim Gull removed Baldwin and Rozzi from Allen’s counsel based on her subjective belief that the attorneys are negligent (page 15).

Read the full court filing below: