I just thought I'd take a few moments to offer my good-natured, however diametrically opposite response to a few comments on my recent posts regarding facts learned via the Franks motion, LE statements, Old D, and Court biz related production and papers at the IN SC re: Allen v Gull. Thanks all for your generous tolerance!
We've had no indication the LE leak investigation found issue with anyone other than Westermann. Were there LE leak concerns regarding the old D, Gull would have referenced that in her Supreme Court Response re: old D's removal. After all, Gull directed/chose McL (the Prosecution) to direct and investigation of the leak; P was obligated to report back to the Court. Gull had the info, drew conclusions, and acted upon them (against old D) even before Westermann was arrested.
re: Frank's Motion. Facts show Gull had more than 2 months to instruct the old D as to corrections required for the Frank's motion to be put back up on the public docket and
she chose to NEVER explain her objection nor direct corrections to the old D. Instead, and months later, upon duress of an SC Writ, Gull responded to Allen at the SC: the "reason" for suppressing the Frank's motion was that the Frank's memo contained the (widely published for 7 years) underage murder victims' names, whose vicious murders have been televised on prime time, who have been publicly honored, lives celebrated, and parks/monuments built/erected in their names. SC found the issue mute b/c the old D can't correct a motion on a case they've been tossed off of. (Convenient, no?
![Big grin :D :D](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png)
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A point of irony (if not favoritism) here: Gull's docket itself proves Gull took this "redacting rule" position against Defense filings whilst giving the Prosecution a pass on the exact same issue regarding Prosecution's public filings; the P's filings also failed to redact the victims' names - but Gull didn't mind.
Gull showing favor to P over D ... Gull sending the P to investigate the D ... Gull involving P in her decision making to remove D ... Gull planning and replacing old D with a personal friend who was just formally disciplined for behavioral issues ... Gull stalling on putting the Frank's Motion hearing on the calendar and removing (with no explainer) the Frank's Motion from the public docket ... Gull conducting exparte meetings with the P about the old D and then soliciting P's opinion on the record as to old D's competence ... none of this is appropriate judicial behavior, nor is it a good look for an ostensibly fair trial.
Gull conducted her Court's decision process in secrecy, and manipulated the docket until she was compelled in papers to IN Supreme Court (due to being respondent to 2nd writ) to (finally) document her Court's process by which and deliberations upon the removal of the old D. Gull's Supreme Court response was that over the course of a year of Allen representation, 3 events (the old D's public statement, one email error, and the failure to anticipate and prevent Westermann's leak/conversion) were evidence of negligence/incompetence that warrants old D removal - the need (and against RA's expressed preference) for RA to lose his trusted chosen counsel and have his trial delayed a year - in favor of counsel known to Gull and hand-picked by Gull. Which is superior? The Court's (Gull's) judgement? Or the Defendant's right to counsel of their choice? Apart from Gull's assertion of gross negligence against the old D ... Gull's secretive behavior and process-free choices have created a crisis of confidence in her Court managing the Delphi murder trial for Allen.
So ... the SC will hear RA/Gull regarding the old D, but the SC can still punt this ball back to a lower court. If the SC makes a decision, they're making Indiana case law. We'll see. As previously confessed, all that is super interesting (law-nerdy stuff) to me. My thinking and preference here: for the sake of all with stakes in the Delphi double murder case - GULL should (at the minimum) step down due to appearance of unfairness. The court, as an institution, is expected to maintain a professional and impartial demeanor. Judges are expected to be fair, unbiased, and objective in their decisions. Judges should be deliberate, reasoned, direct, specific, clarifying, transparent, fair and unemotional in their directives to all Court officers. It appears Gull's judicial style is emotionally passive-aggressive. Passive aggression attempts to hide aggression via secretive, coded tactics. Passive-aggression gets in the way of the court's obligation to maintain a professional and impartial demeanor. At the minimum, I hope we see the SC recommend this self-removal solution to the Court.
To my knowledge, Gull has never expressed her view of the "O Theory", nor did she object to the Franks motion's content. Gull never objected to the Frank's Memo publication (nor required redaction) of the other POI's names (and stating in SC reply papers that the redaction requirement was for victims names only), nor did Gull object to the Frank's motion detailing of POI-related interview product. Thus, opinions/views that the "O Theory" represents old D being legally inappropriate or irresponsible are 100% unsupportable pedestrian emotional speculation, fact-free and frankly, legally uniformed. i.e. This is how a proper murder defense is developed; we don't have to like it but there's no cause for outrage nor for sliming the defense's integrity and skill. If a plea is in order ... it's not always known until substantial discovery has been conducted; it's not time to plea until the defense develops it's strategy, does the fact-finding, and has an opportunity to pursue that strategy. IMO
Gull did acknowledge delay in scheduling the hearing on the Frank's motion, she did complain that it was lengthy, she did state she'd not finished reading the Exhibits, adding that when she did read the Exhibits, she could then schedule the hearing. We then learned that all the while that Gull states she has not had time to read the Frank's Motion
, she was in fact (EX-PARTE!!) privately discussing and planning the removal of the old D
with the Prosecution and replacement w/ her personal choice of new D ... without informing the D.
(More passive aggression.)
In documenting (after-the-fact) her decisions, NOTHING about the O Theory or the Frank's Memo was included in her description of old D's "negligence" and/or "incompetence"
(excepting the need to redact victim's name from the memo ... a need that was never compelling enough for Gull to actually issue such the instruction to redact to the old D.)
Who owns responsibility for a suicide? IMO, the leak suicide cannot be blamed upon far removed strangers (the old D). There's no connection between old D and suicide victim. Placing upon old D the "responsibility" for the suicide of a stranger (to them) seems unreasonable.
We have a confession from Westermann that specifically disabuses the old D's involvement in Westermann's leak. Westermann's affidavit describes his theft/secrecy and his abuse of his friendship and familiarity w/ Baldwin's law office. (LE likely has further, more detailed statements from Westermann as to motive and others involved.) LE is not investigating the old D.
The deeply personal, complex and
unknowable psych history, stress, emotional management and flawed judgement of the suicide victim himself ... is the mystery and ultimately the cause of the suicide. The decision to send stolen photos to vloggers was the victim's decision alone.
Heck, it's more likely that it was LE's interview w/ the suicide victim that was so threatening it became his last trigger. There's no way of knowing how that interview went ... and LE will bury that unless the victim's family presses the point. Should LE be held responsible for triggering the suicide here? I'm betting that would be viewed as unreasonable as well.
Finally, I'll add that Murder Sheet early-on reported that the suicide victim's wife stated that her husband had worked hard on his problems and that he was a good man and his life was about so much more than his choice to share crime scene photos.
And no, Emu. There's no hot dog in the Frank's motion. (Is that raunchy enough sounding for ya?)
all JMHO.