While he’s no longer on the case, Allen County Chief Public Defender Bill Lebrato hasn’t seen anything quite like the Delphi murders.
Lebrato appeared on FOX59 Morning News from Allen County to discuss the proceedings.
“This case has been unusual from the beginning,” Lebrato said. “It has garnered so much media attention nationally. When I was still attorney of record, I would get calls from other countries. So, no, I’ve never seen so many twists and turns in a case.”
Special Judge Fran Gull appointed Lebrato and attorney Robert Scremin to represent Richard Allen, who faces two counts of murder in connection with the February 2017 deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German near the Monon High Bridge in Delphi.
The appointments came after Allen’s original defense team, Bradley Rozzi and Andrew Baldwin, withdrew from the case over an evidence leak in October. Rozzi and Baldwin later said they withdrew under pressure and fought for reinstatement.
The battle eventually made its way to the Indiana Supreme Court, which decided to reinstate the attorneys. The court, which chose Gull to oversee the case when the original judge recused himself, decided to keep Gull as presiding judge.
Last week, with Rozzi’s and Baldwin’s status as Allen’s attorneys restored, Lebrato and Scremin filed a motion to withdraw as his representation. As a result, the attorneys are no longer bound by the case’s longstanding gag order.
Lebrato covered several aspects of the case during an interview on FOX59 Morning News.
Odinism theory
Lebrato commented on the “Odinism theory” laid out by attorneys Rozzi and Baldwin in the memorandum in support of their motion for a Franks hearing challenging the validity of the search warrant granted for Allen’s home.
The defense’s alternative murder theory, laid out in the 136-page memorandum, alleged that the girls were killed in “ritualistic” fashion by adherents of a white supremacist cult called “Odinism.” Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland called the theory “a fanciful defense for social media to devour.”
Lebrato had no idea about Odinism—he told FOX59’s Angela Ganote he’d never heard of it before the case—but learned a great deal about it in the course of defending Allen.
“There are people that follow this Odin religion,” he said. “There are people that were very brazen at the time of the murders on their Facebook accounts about being part of this Odinistic cult. Whether they’re responsible, I don’t know. I don’t want to get into what our legal defense theory would’ve been because I don’t want to hinder the current attorneys.”
Interactions with Allen
Lebrato characterized Allen as “soft spoken” and “engaged” in his defense. Indiana State Police announced his arrest in October 2022. He’s been in captivity ever since, spending most of his time at Westville Correctional Facility before being moved to Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in late 2023.
Both his current and former attorneys have filed motions seeking to have him transferred to a different facility.
“He’s always very respectful to us in our meetings with him,” Lebrato said. “I think he’s not guilty or innocent because I believe the presumption of innocence is one of the most important legal theories that we have. That presumption of innocence carries with him through every stage of the trial, until the jury has heard all the evidence, including closing arguments, and until they deliberate. That presumption of innocence follows him the whole way.”
Importance of getting it right
When asked about his message to the families of Abby Williams and Libby German, Lebrato said he believed it was important to get this case right.
“My heart goes out to the families of those two little girls. I mean, this was a horrific, horrific crime,” he said. “But I’m sure the families want to make sure that law enforcement not only arrests but convicts the right person or people that were involved in this heinous crime.”
On Special Judge Fran Gull
Lebrato thinks highly of Special Judge Fran Gull. He’s practiced law in front of Gull for more than two decades and believes she can be impartial, despite calls from the defense to have her removed from the proceedings.
One of those efforts failed, when the state’s highest court decided to keep her on the case. Allen’s attorneys filed a motion this week seeking the judge’s recusal and questioning her impartiality.
“Judge Gull knows no other way than to be fair,” he said. “She does not play favorites. The Supreme Court didn’t pick her name out of a hat. They chose her for a specific reason. In their ruling, they unanimously voted that Judge Gull stays on this case.”
He said her “ethical and moral standards” were beyond reproach.
Return to case?
When asked if he would return to the case in defense of Allen, Lebrato said that decision was out of his hands.
“If I was ever to be put back on the case, this is not a decision I would be in position to make,” he said. “If for some reason, Judge Gull wanted to appoint our office again, it would make sense since my defense team was on this case for 79 days and we’ve got a pretty good grasp of what we’re after and what we need to do.”
Allen’s trial is currently scheduled for October.
