Judge recuses himself from case of slain Indiana girls

DELPHI, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana decide has recused himself from the case of two slain teenage ladies, an Indiana Supreme Court docket spokeswoman mentioned Thursday.

The Indiana Supreme Court docket is within the strategy of appointing Allen County Superior Court docket Decide Fran Gull as particular decide within the case after Carroll Circuit Court docket Decide Benjamin Diener’s recusal, spokeswoman Kathryn Dolan mentioned.

“A decide doesn’t have to elucidate a motive for recusal,” Dolan mentioned in an electronic mail to the information media.

Diener’s recusal got here on the identical day he accepted a request from Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby to switch Richard Allen, the suspect within the 2017 killings, to the Indiana Division of Corrections for security causes.

Within the order to switch Allen, Diener wrote, “This FINDING shouldn’t be predicated on any acts or alleged acts of the Defendant, since arrest, moderately a poisonous and dangerous insistence on ‘public info’ about Defendant and this case.”

Diener mentioned the court docket discovered Allen to be in “imminent hazard of significant bodily harm or loss of life, or represents a considerable risk to the security of others.”

He additionally addressed what he termed the “public bloodlust for info” within the case, calling it harmful and saying all public servants engaged on the case don’t really feel protected or protected.

The order went on to state the general public’s need to be taught in regards to the case and entry court docket information was “inherently disruptive” to court docket operations

Allen is being held on $20 million bond, on-line court docket information present.

Allen, 50, was arrested Friday on two homicide counts within the killings of Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13, in a case that has haunted Delphi.

The deaths had been dominated a double murder, however police have by no means disclosed how they died or described what proof they gathered. A relative had dropped them off at a climbing path close to the Monon Excessive Bridge simply outdoors their hometown of Delphi, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis. Their our bodies had been discovered the subsequent day, Feb. 14, 2017, in a rugged, closely wooded space close to the path.

Diener entered a not-guilty plea for Allen at his preliminary listening to on Friday.