State ex rel. Allen v. Carroll Circuit Court
Annotate this Case
In 2022, Richard Allen was charged with the murder of two teenage girls in Indiana. Due to his inability to afford a lawyer, the trial court appointed public defenders Andrew Baldwin and Brad Rozzi to represent him. After about a year, the special judge overseeing the case grew concerned about the effectiveness of Baldwin and Rozzi and disqualified them over Allen's objections, replacing them with new public defenders and postponing Allen's trial by nine months to give the new lawyers time to prepare.
Allen then hired two appellate attorneys who filed a Verified Petition for Writ of Mandamus with the Indiana Supreme Court, asking for the reinstatement of Baldwin and Rozzi, a trial start within seventy days, and a new special judge. The Indiana Supreme Court granted Allen's request to reinstate his original counsel, but denied his other two requests.
The court found that the trial court did not demonstrate that disqualifying Baldwin and Rozzi was a necessary last resort after considering the prejudice to Allen. Furthermore, Allen's request for a trial within seventy days was denied because he did not make this request in the trial court. Finally, the court denied Allen's request to replace the special judge, as he did not provide sufficient evidence to suggest that the special judge was biased or prejudiced.
The court also found that Allen's petition presented extraordinary circumstances for which there was not an adequate appellate remedy. Thus, reviewing the trial court’s disqualification decision was appropriate through an original action. Moreover, disqualifying Allen’s counsel delayed his trial by at least nine months, and the trial court has already concluded that Allen’s pretrial confinement presents extraordinary challenges. Hence, the court concluded that Allen's petition presented the sort of extraordinary circumstances for which there is not an adequate appellate remedy.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.