UPDATE (2/8/2024): Judge Fran Gull has denied the motion asking for Richard Allen to be moved from Wabash Valley Correctional Facility.
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CARLISLE, Ind. — Robert Scremin and William Lebrato, the two new court-appointed attorneys for Richard Allen, are asking the state of Indiana to transfer Allen after claiming that Allen is not being treated the same as other prisoners and that his current location at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility impacts their ability to represent him in court.
According to previous reports, Allen, a suspect in the February 2017 deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German near the Monon High Bridge in Delphi, was moved from the Westville Correctional Facility to the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Sullivan County in early December 2023.
In a motion to transfer, filed by Scremin and Lebrato in Carroll County on Friday, they claim that Allen is not being treated similarly to other pre-trial detainees being held in county jails throughout the state. The team also claims that Allen’s current location “will seriously, if not fatally, impact counsel’s ability to effectively represent… Allen due to the distance of travel and visitation conditions.”
The team is asking for Allen to be transferred to the Allen County Jail or the Adams County Jail, according to the motion to transfer.
This is not the first time that lawyers who have represented Allen have claimed that Allen has been treated differently than other pre-trial detainees. In April 2023, Allen’s legal team at the time filed an emergency motion to modify the safekeeping order, claiming he was not being treated like other detainees. After that motion was denied, the court received a letter from an inmate at the Westville Correctional Facility, claiming that Allen “was being abused and mistreated.”
In the motion filed on Friday, Scremin and Lebrato said that their offices are located in Fort Wayne, which was around 106 miles to the Westville Correctional Facility and around 233 miles to the Wabash Correctional Facility. The legal team detailed multiple visits with Allen at both facilities that included “lengthy travel, complicated and protracted prison security procedures and difficult visitation conditions.”
At the Westville Correctional Facility in November 2023, Allen’s legal team claims that Allen was “unnecessarily shackled and chained in a manner resembling (Hannibal Lecter)” and “clearly appeared intimidated by the guards and was hesitant to speak freely with counsel.
At the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in December, the team claims that they spoke with Allen through an “Iron flap” that was meant to serve food to prisoners. The documents also claimed that the visitation would be monitored by video camera.
“This arrangement made it impossible to show… Allen any videos or documents, or discuss the case with him, without raising our voices and almost shouting,” the documents read. “In 25 years of practicing law in five states, including representing numerous defendants charged with murder, I have never had to conduct an in-custody legal consultation in this fashion.”
Ultimately, the legal team stressed that in their experience, their consultations have never been recorded and their clients had never been “shackled, handcuffed or chained during visits.”
“I am often able to simply sit at a table with my client and have a conversation, but at the very least, I am able to sit directly across from my client and speak through a large plexiglass partition where we can view videos and documents,” the documents read. “…Clients in county jails are extremely accessible and multiple visits can be quickly and efficiently made when legal issues arise.
The team stresses that there is overwhelming evidence that Allen’s pre-trial treatment is not the same as given to other detainees and that his current location will impact their ability to counsel him.
According to previous reports, Allen’s trial is scheduled for October after it was initially scheduled for January. A portion of the case surrounding Allen’s request to reinstate his original defense team and the request to remove Special Judge Fran Gull from the case is expected to be heard in the Indiana Supreme Court later this month.