This and that: A Sunday morning edition
This and that: A Sunday morning edition
Motions, orders fly ahead of key week of hearings in Delphi murders trial. LSC names educators of the year. Election board hints that new candidate sign rules could be coming. And more
Thanks today for ongoing help from Based in Lafayette sponsor Long Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Lafayette, presenting a lineup of shows at Loeb Stadium this summer. For tickets for these and other events, go to longpac.org.
This and that/other reads on a Sunday morning …
MORE TURMOIL AHEAD OF THREE DAYS OF HEARINGS IN DELPHI MURDERS CASE: Heading into a week with three days set aside at the Carroll County Courthouse for pretrial hearings for Richard Allen, accused in the 2017 murders of Delphi teens Abby Williams and Libby German, his attorneys are making another run at getting rid of the judge in the case.
Meanwhile, among another flurry of motions and orders late last week (something of a hallmark in the case), Judge Fran Gull rejected a defense team’s request to postpone hearing dates set for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Delphi to give them more time to prepare for the load of motions filed by both sides.
Gull wrote in an order issued Friday that “the court scheduled this hearing at counsels' request who all indicated that they would make these dates work on their respective calendars.” She wrote that the hearings would proceed on motions from Allen’s side to suppress statements he made to investigators just before his October 2022 arrest; for sanctions against Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland; and one filed last week to lift a safekeeping order from November 2022 that put Allen in state prisons ahead of his trial instead of in the Carroll County Jail.
Gull also wrote that hearings would go ahead on the prosecutor’s motion laying out the words, phrases and implied references he wants Gull to ban in Allen’s upcoming trial, scheduled to start in October. McLeland’s list runs four pages and covers Odinism, cult or ritualistic killing and names tied to a third-party defense Allen’s attorneys, Brad Rozzi and Andrew Baldwin, have been floating in court filings that another set of men, involved in a ritual devoted to the Norse god Odin, were the ones to killed Abby, 13, and Libby, 14, in the woods near the Monon High Bridge in Delphi.
Gull’s order Friday did agree to delay hearings on the defense team’s motion to suppress alleged confessions during Allen’s time in jail, giving his side more time to prepare.
Friday afternoon, Rozzi and Baldwin followed up that order with a third motion to have Gull recuse herself or be removed from the case, contending that the judge has shown a pattern of bias against Allen. The defense team wrote that Gull could “restore public confidence by withdrawing from this case,” a move that would “reduce the likelihood of costly appellate litigation and the cost of a retrial should a negative outcome against Richard Allen result from the trial should she remain on the case.”
The previous two attempts to remove Gull from the case have been rejected, once by Gull. The other time came from the Indiana Supreme Court, when the justices restored Rozzi and Baldwin as Allen’s defense attorneys after they were tossed from the case when Gull accused them of incompetence for evidence leaks and how they were handling the case.
The defense also filed a motion on Friday to delay this week’s hearings until Gull ruled, backed by a written decision, on the request that she step down in the case. As of this weekend, Gull had not responded to that motion.
EVERYWHERE A (POLITICAL) SIGN: Tippecanoe County’s Election Board hinted Friday that the county was looking into new rules that could limit the size of candidate signs put up outside vote centers. That follows a May 7 primary when some signs were big enough that they required three fence posts at some vote centers. County Clerk Julie Roush said there were complaints from some candidates and from sites hosting vote centers that large signs added to an already cluttered scene greeting voters. (She also said there were questions about sign posts that should have come with calls to Indiana 811 to make sure they didn’t endanger gas, fiber optic and other utility lines. One model, she said, was a local ordinance pass in 2022 in Hamilton County, where candidate signs at polling place are limited to no larger than 36-by-24 inches, placed in the ground no earlier than 12 hours before polls open and put into the ground with wire stands – not metal or wooden posts. The Hamilton County ordinance also puts limits on the number of signs allowed for each candidate outside polling places. Roush said she was interested in getting ahead of the November general election but that a decision on campaign sign size would be up to county commissioners.
LSC NAMES DISTINGUISHED EDUCATORS FOR 2024: Lafayette School Corp. named Lindsay Nunan, an English teacher at Oakland Academy, as the district’s distinguished educator of the year, chosen from a field of top teachers from each of LSC’s schools.
The annual awards go teachers and other staff members at each school who “promote active learning and successfully encourage students to think imaginatively, critically, and independently; promote a love of learning and contribute to the likelihood that students will give their best effort; help students appreciate the relationship between the subject and its place in the scheme of things; … (and) contribute to the whole school, making it a positive culture in which students can learn and colleagues can work.”
Here's a look at the winners across LSC:
Linnwood preschool: Karen Tharp, occupational therapist
Amelia Earhart Elementary: Kim Littlefield, administrative professional
Edgelea Elementary: Kelly Johnston, Title I lead teacher
Glen Acres Elementary: Alexandra Noble, fourth-grade teacher
Miami Elementary: Alexandra Motsch, special education teacher
Miller Elementary: Shali Peterson, special education teacher
Murdock Elementary: Ashley Pollert, Title I lead teacher
Oakland Elementary: Erin Hoke, Title I lead teacher
Vinton Elementary: Camille Rocroi, special education teacher
Sunnyside Intermediate School: Eliza Talamantes, multilingual teacher
Tecumseh Junior High: Laura Mark, language arts teacher
Oakland Academy: Lindsay Nunan, English teacher
Jefferson High School: Michael Dodaro, English teacher
LAFAYETTE JEFF SOFTBALL COMPLEX NAMED FOR MAURIE DENNEY: It took a few tries last week, thanks to the weather, but Lafayette Jeff finally was able to formally dedicate the school’s newly named softball complex for former Athletic Director Maurie Denney. In March, the Lafayette school board voted to name the field off 26th Street and Gregory Avenue for Denney, former teacher, athletic director and assistant principal for 35 years in the Lafayette district. The honor noted the work Denney did at the school, including advocating for the softball complex just east of the high school at a time when the softball team played at Sunnyside Intermediate School.
TOURISM WEEK EVENTS, STARTING MONDAY: Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette will be all in on National Travel and Tourism Week, which starts Monday, with a series of free stuff and free events. Here’s a look:
Monday: 11 a.m.-4 p.m., get free Triple XXX Root beer and popcorn at Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette offices, 301 Frontage Road in Lafayette.
Tuesday: Noon-4 p.m., free entrance to Columbian Park Zoo in Lafayette’s Columbian Park.
Wednesday: 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Frozen treats, sweets and trivia at Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette’s offices.
Thursday: 4-7 p.m., a Tourism Thursday event featuring Ace, the Lafayette Aviators’ mascot, Flourish Mobile Art, food trucks and games, at the Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette’s offices.
Friday: Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette will host a pair of events, including a Community Coffee Crawl, featuring shops in downtown Lafayette. Registration is available here. Also, get a guided tour of the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette’s Colossal Creation art crawl, featuring the sculptures of Robert Pulley, from 10-11:30 a.m. For more information and to register for the tour, here’s your link.
FORMER BENTON COUNTY JUDGE ‘ADMONISHED’: Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Leslie Bonilla Muñiz had the story about an Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications admonishment handed down to Benton County Prosecutor Rex Kepner, who offered a small loan to a defendant to help her settle a case when he was Benton Circuit Court judge in 2019. The case deals with $1,000 funneled from the judge, via his court reporter, to a woman who had fallen behind on payments after she was sued by a landlord over rental damages. Kepner, according to the admonition, had wanted “to help a member of his community who had fallen upon hard times.” For more, here's Bonilla Muñiz story: “Former judge admonished for $1,000 loan to defendant behind on payments.”
AND FINALLY …: What a great return to form Saturday for the first Mosey Down Main Street of the 2024 season, the monthly summer festival’s 16th (can you believe it). Great weather. Huge crowds. Solid bands. All under those new Main Steet overhead string lights. Nice work.
Thanks, again, to Based in Lafayette sponsor Long Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Lafayette. For information on upcoming events, go to longpac.org.
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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.
Well, how dare a judge break the ethical rules for judges in Indiana by loaning a person $1000 to help her out of trouble= sympathy. So while he is being admonished for loaning $, our U S Supreme Court Justices are TAKING $ in multiple ways Scott free. Welcome to “Justice” at it’s finest!