Audrey Conklin
Fox News
October 11, 2023
Delphi murders suspect Richard Allen is safe from prison guards, who his defense attorneys alleged were affiliated with the very Odinist cult that they say killed two teen girls in 2017, Indiana prosecutors said in Tuesday court filings.
The filings come after Allen's attorneys, Andrew Baldwin and Bradley Rozzi, alleged in September that the Feb. 14, 2017, killings of 14-year-old Liberty "Libby" German and 13-year-old Abigail "Abby" Williams were carried out by members of a pagan cult dedicated to Odin, a war god in Norse mythology, and that Allen was framed by law enforcement as the main suspect in the girls' murders.
Allen's defense team further alleged that he was being treated unfairly by prison guards who were members of the same Odinist cult that they say killed Libby and Abby, alleging that Allen has been tased twice at the Westville Correctional Facility and that two guards wore Odinist patches on their uniforms.
"It is inside of the cold, concrete walls of the maximum-security unit of this dilapidated ‘reformatory’ that Richard Allen is being threatened, intimidated, and mentally abused," Allen's attorneys wrote.
Prosecutors called the recent claims "unfounded," saying the defense "continues to make unfounded accusations supported by absolutely no proof" that prison guards are part of a cult that has been targeting Allen in prison.
They added that the claims are "consuming the limited resources of the office and this court with repetitive motions that lack any factual basis."
In three sworn affidavits, Westville Correctional Facility Warden John Galipeau, Sgt. Joshua Robinson and Sgt. Randy Jones say they have not been abusing their power to harm Allen and denied the defense's claims that they are Odinists.
Galipeau's affidavit "ensures that no one in command had an agenda related to Odinism or ever ordered anyone under their command to harass or threaten the Defendant," prosecutors said in one of the Tuesday court filings.
"Westville Correctional Facility has very few inmates that practice Odinism," the warden's affidavit states, adding that "none of those inmates are housed with or next to the Defendant."
The warden further alleged in his affidavit that Allen "was tased twice"at the prison because "we could not get him to comply with our orders."
Robinson swore in his affidavit that he does not practice Odinism or wear Odinist patches on his uniform, but the patches on his sleeves "pay the utmost respect to my religious higher power, the same way Christian person would wear cross."
Jones said that while he does not practice Odinism, he does follow "Norse Paganism Heathenry."
"I started wearing the patches 6 or 7 months ago and did not stop wearing my patches until September 22, 2023, when ordered by my command to remove the patches," Jones said in the affidavit, adding that his patches "do not represent racism or hatred for anyone" and he is "not part of a cult."
Last month, Allen's attorneys said in a memo that there is "overwhelming evidence in this case" to support the idea that "members of a pagan Norse religion, called Odinism, hijacked by white nationalists, ritualistically sacrificed Abigail Williams and Liberty German."
Police recovered Libby's cellphone under her body on Feb. 14, 2017. The phone had a 43-second video that shows Abigail walking on the Monon High Bridge in Delphi toward Libby while a man in a dark jacket and jeans walks behind her. The man can be heard ordering the girls "down the hill," according to an affidavit.
Libby captured the video at 2:13 p.m., less than 25 minutes after she and Abigail's family members dropped them off at the trail.
More than five years after their murders, investigators executed a search warrant at Allen's home in Delphi on Oct. 13, 2022, and they recovered a blue Carhartt jacket, a SIG Sauer P226 .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun and a .40-caliber S&W cartridge in a "wooden keepsake box" from a dresser between two closets in Allen's bedroom, according to authorities. Allen was an employee at a CVS in Delphi at the time of his arrest.
The handgun recovered at Allen's home was consistent with a .40-caliber unspent bullet police located at the site of the murders in 2017, police said.
The memo from Allen's attorneys filed last month diverted attention from the suspect's connection to the murders and toward a new theory and a new group of potential suspects.
Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/delphi-murders-suspect-richard-allen-not-being-harassed-alleged-cult-members-prison-prosecutors-say
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