Family and friends of Liberty German and Abigail Williams were left furious by an Indiana court’s decision to shield explicit prison video footage from public view out of “respect” for the “dignity” of the man accused of murdering the Delphi teens.
Jurors in Carroll County Court were the only members of the public allowed to view nearly two hours of video recordings made of Richard Allen during the 13 months he was detained at the Westville Correctional Facility in Westville. , about 76 miles from Delphi.
Expressing frustration outside the circuit courtroom where the trial is being held, Libby’s grandmother, Becky Patty, said it was “ridiculous” to be “hiding” Allen when the court had “shown the girls at their worst,” through a host of horrible scenes. and publicly released photographs of crimes and autopsies.
Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, were murdered outside their hometown of Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017.
Richard Allen denies murdering Liberty and Abby, who were killed while walking in their hometown of Delphi, Indiana.
Family members of Liberty German and Abigail Williams listen as Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter announces during a news conference in Delphi, Ind., Monday, Oct. 31, 2022, the arrest of Richard Allen, 50 , for the murder of two teenagers. during a 2017 hiking trip in northern Indiana
Allen, 52, faces four charges related to the murders of best friends Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, who disappeared after hiking the Monon High Bridge Trail on Feb. 13, 2017.
He has been charged with the murder and felony murder of both girls, which means murder committed during the act of another crime, in this case the other act would be kidnapping.
He faces a maximum sentence of 130 years if convicted.
Today, his defense continued to present its case by admitting into evidence nearly two hours of footage taken from video cameras used by guards who constantly monitored and filmed Allen during his 13 months in solitary confinement and suicide watch.
At the beginning of Saturday morning, judge Frances Gull explained that due to the “quite explicit scenes” contained in the 15 videos, she would publish the exhibit, meaning that the videos could be viewed, but only for the jury.
Bradely Rozzi, a member of Allen’s legal team, thanked Judge Gull for his decision and said, “Out of respect for various parties, including my client and his dignity, this is the most professional way to address this.”
In the images, both girls are seen lying face up on the morgue table, with their neck wounds wide open. They were both 5 feet 4 inches tall, Abby weighed 95 pounds and Libby weighed 200 pounds.
The abandoned Monon High Bridge outside Delphi, Indiana, where Abby and Libby were murdered
The large screen on which evidence was presented to jurors was moved away from the public gallery while the videos, which contain no audio, were shown before a silent courtroom.
Visible to some members of the media from where they were sitting in the gallery, in some Allen is naked, in all he is handcuffed or otherwise restrained.
In one, he kneels, naked, in front of a wall while two officers soap and wash him before drying him and placing a black ‘spit hood’ over his head.
Allen, in another, still bearded at the time, is cutting his hair, sitting apparently passive, his hands cuffed behind his back. At some point, two guards drag him down a hallway and grab him by each arm.
In another, he appears to be lying down as guards try to lift him up.
Another video shows Allen naked and wearing a white hoodie.
Another shows him being transported to the prison’s medical unit, tied to a chair while he is apparently being examined. Allen received several involuntary injections of the antipsychotic drug Haldol during his stay in Westville.
All of the ‘motion videos’ were taken as Allen was transported in and out of his cell and filmed between April and June 2023, obtained from hundreds of hours of footage reviewed by his defense team.
The jury is expected to appear on cellphone video late next week.
The trail in Delphi, Indiana, where 13-year-old Abby Williams and 14-year-old Libby German were murdered.
Richard Allen is thin, gaunt, with close-cropped hair and barely five feet tall, but witness Breann Wilber described ‘Bridge Guy’ as tall and muscular.
They describe what the defense has presented as the peak of the “serious mental illness” and psychotic breakdown they say Allen suffered due to constant monitoring and his long stay in solitary confinement in Westville’s most secure unit.
Jurors watched the footage closely, sometimes covering their mouth with their hand, but they were noticeably less shaken than Allen’s own attorneys.
Jennifer Auger watched with clear discomfort as her colleague Rozzi presented each clip. At one point, Andrew Baldwin, with his arm around the back of Allen’s chair where he was sitting next to him, seemed on the verge of tears.
Yesterday the court heard Allen was “severely mentally ill” when he made a series of prison confessions about Libby and Abby’s murder.
The statement came through expert testimony from Dr. Deanna Dweinger, the psychologist who oversees mental health care at the Indiana Department of Corrections.
Under questioning by Rozzi, Dweinger told the court that the conditions in which Allen was held during his 13 months in Westville would have been “toxic” for a man already suffering from depression and anxiety.